Essen is a town and municipality located in the province of Antwerp in the Flanders region of Belgium. As of September 2022, the town has a population of 19,029 residents. Essen is administratively part of both the electoral canton of Brecht and the judicial canton of Kapellen, and it sits within the Noorderkempen region.
A distinctive geographical feature of Essen is its unique border situation: the town is surrounded by the Netherlands on three sides. This unusual arrangement reflects the complex border geography of the Belgium-Netherlands frontier in this part of Flanders and shapes Essen's position as a borderland municipality with significant cross-border characteristics.