The city and municipality of Antwerp is a centre of commerce in Belgium and the capital of Antwerp province, in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions. Antwerp's total population is ca. 461,496 (as of January 2006) and its total area is 204.51 km² with a population density of 2,257 inhabitants per km².
Antwerp has long been an important city in the nations of the Benelux both economically and culturally. It is on the right bank of the river Scheldt which is linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde. Antwerp's seaport, one of the world's largest and after the port of Rotterdam the second largest in Europe, has a high level of cargo shipping and oil refineries traffic. Families of the large Hasidic Jewish community have traditionally controlled Antwerp's global centre of the diamond trading industry, although the last two decades have seen Indian and Armenian traders become increasingly important.
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