Aruba is an island 33 kilometre long (20 mi) located about west of the Lesser Antilles in the southern Caribbean Sea, located north of the coast of Venezuela. Together with Bonaire and Curaçao, it forms a group referred to as the ABC islands. Collectively, Aruba and the other Dutch islands in the Caribbean are often called the Netherlands Antilles or the Dutch Caribbean.

Aruba is one of the four constituent countries that form the Kingdom of the Netherlands, along with the Netherlands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The citizens of these countries all share a single nationality: Dutch. Aruba has no administrative subdivisions, but, for census purposes, is divided into eight regions. Its capital is Oranjestad.

Unlike much of the Caribbean region, Aruba has a dry climate and an arid, cactus-strewn landscape. This climate has helped tourism as visitors to the island can reliably expect warm, sunny weather. It has a land area of and is densely populated, with a total of 102,484 inhabitants at the 2010 Census. It lies outside the hurricane belt.

Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0  (Author : Peter Fitzgerald)