Aruba is a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located 23 kilometers north of the Paraguaná peninsula in the Venezuelan state of Falcón. It belongs to the ABC islands of the Lesser Antilles. Aruba has a population of 110,663 (2014) inhabitants and with an area of 180 km² it is about the same size as the Dutch Wadden island of Texel. The island is quite arid with little of the lush tropical vegetation common in the Caribbean.