An overview of the known Wolf-Rayet (WR) population of the Milky Way is
presented, including a brief overview of historical catalogues and recent
advances based on infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations resulting
in the current census of 642 (v1.13 online catalogue). The observed
distribution of WR stars is considered with respect to known star clusters,
given that <20% of WR stars in the disk are located in clusters. WN stars
outnumber WC stars at all galactocentric radii, while early-type WC stars are
strongly biased against the inner Milky Way. Finally, recent estimates of the
global WR population in the Milky Way are reassessed, with 1,200+/-100
estimated, such that the current census may be 50% complete. A characteristic
WR lifetime of 0.25 Myr is inferred for an initial mass threshold of 25 Msun.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, to appear in proceedings of International
Workshop on Wolf-Rayet Stars (editors W.-R. Hamann, A. Sander, and H. Todt,
publisher Universit\"atsverlag Potsdam
