"Youth of the Nation" is a song by American Christian metal band P.O.D. It was released in December 2001 as the second single to come from their second major label album, Satellite. It was inspired in part by the school shootings at Santana High School and Columbine High School. While Satellite contained numerous hit songs, "Youth of the Nation" was the band's only No. 1 hit on the Modern Rock chart and reached No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, their only single to reach the top 40, and No. 6 on the Mainstream Rock chart. The song was included in "Weird Al" Yankovic's polka medley "Angry White Boy Polka" from his 2003 album Poodle Hat, despite lead singer Sonny Sandoval's mixed race background. It was also featured as downloadable content in the music video games Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band 3.

The song's inspiration stems from a trip when the band was on their way to record for Satellite on March 5, 2001. They were held up in traffic and discovered that the reason was a shooting at Santana High School where a fifteen-year-old student named Charles Andrew Williams killed two and wounded thirteen. The album was consequently delayed, and the band was inspired to write "Youth of the Nation."

In a 2008 interview, guitarist Marcos Curiel described the event:

Curiel added, "When you can hear something that's going to uplift you like 'Alive' or something that’s going to bring out knowledge like 'Youth of the Nation,' we’ve done our jobs as an artist."

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