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About Wilmington

Wilmington (Lenape: Paxahakink / Pakehakink) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley metropolitan area (synonymous with the Philadelphia metropolitan area). Wilmington was named by Proprietor Thomas Penn after his friend Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, who was prime minister during the reign of George II of Great Britain. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 70,898. Wilmington is part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area (which also includes Philadelphia, Reading, Camden, and other urban areas), which had a 2020 core metropolitan statistical area population of 6,228,601, representing the seventh largest metropolitan region in the nation, and a combined statistical area population of 7.366 million. == History == Wilmington is built on the site of Fort Christina and the settlement Kristinehamn, the first Swedish settlement in North America. The modern city also encompasses other Swedish settlements, such as Timmerön / Timber Island (along Brandywine Creek), Sidoland (South Wellington), Strandviken (along the Delaware River near Simonds Garden) and Översidolandet (along the Christina River, near Woodcrest and Ashley Heights). The area now known as Wilmington was settled by the Lenape (or Delaware Indian) band led by Sachem (Chief) Mattahorn just before Henry Hudson sailed up the Len-api Hanna ("People Like Me River", present Delaware River) in 1609.