Mapping the stellar populations of the Milky Way with Gaia

Gaia will be ESA's milestone astrometric mission, and is due for launch at the end of 2013. Gaia will repeatedly map the whole sky measuring about one billion sources to V=20-22 mag. Its data products will be {\mu}as accuracy astrometry, optical spectrophotometry and medium resolution spectroscopy. A description of the Gaia space mission and its characteristics and performance is given. The expected impact on Galactic stellar population studies is discussed, with particular attention to the sources of interest for CoRoT and Kepler.