The Stellar Population of the Galactic Bulge

The Galactic bulge is the central spheroid of our Galaxy, containing about one quarter of the total stellar mass of the Milky Way (Mbulge = 1.8 x 1010Mq; Sofue, Honma & Omodaka 2009). Being older than the disk, it is the first massive component of the Galaxy to have collapsed into stars. Understanding its structure, and the properties of its stellar population, is therefore of great relevance for galaxy formation models. I will review our current knowledge of the bulge properties, with special emphasis on chemical abundances, recently measured for several hundred stars.