Country Profiles: Aruba

Aruba is located In the Caribbean near Central America. Originally claimed for Spain in 1499, Aruba was acquired by the Dutch in 1636. Aruba seceded from the Netherlands in 1986 and is now a country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. With an area of 180 sq km, it is slightly larger than Washington, D.C. Aruba is a flat island with few hills and scant vegetation.





People who live in Aruba are called Arubans, which is the adjective used to describe items from this country. As of July 2011, there are 106,113 people in Aruba. Though Dutch is the official language of Aruba, only 5.8% of the population speak it. Several other languages are spoken in Aruba, including Papiamento (a Spanish-Portuguese-Dutch-English dialect, 66.3%), Spanish (12.6%), and English (7.7%). Roman Catholics make up 80.8% of the population, followed by Protestants (7.8%), Jehovah's Witnesses (1.5%), and Jewish citizens (.2%).


The capital of Aruba is Oranjestad. Its leaders include Gov. Fredis Refenjol and Prime Minister Michiel Godfried Eman. Information about the leaders of Aruba's government can be found here. The currency is the Aruban guilder/florin (abbreviated AWG), though euros and U.S. dollars are widely accepted.





All of this information was gathered from the CIA World Factbook. For more information, check out these resources...

Aruba, CIA World Factbook

Background Note: Aruba, U.S. Department of State


You can also check out the Country Studies tab on our Fed Docs libguide here for more resources on all of the countries.

Sonnet Ireland
Head of Federal Documents
Reference & Instruction Librarian
Subject Specialist: Legal Research, Political Science
Urban and Transportation Studies, Engineering