It has a population of about 42,000 and is mainly influenced by the small distance to the more industrial and commercially important cities nearby, Brunswick and Wolfsburg.

Gifhorn is home to the International Wind- and Watermill Museum, which contains a comprehensive collection and working replicas of the world's most common windmills.

Around the Market Place various well-preserved half-timbered houses built in the 16th and 17th centuries can be visited, e.g. the Old Town Hall with impressive wood sculptures dating from 1562.

[5] It was located at the crossing of two then important merchant routes: the salt street (German: Salzstraße) being a main trading route for salt between Lüneburg and Brunswick, and the grain street (German: Kornstraße) transporting grain between Celle and Magdeburg.

Schools in Gifhorn include the Humboldt Gymnasium, the Otto-Hahn-Gymnasium, Fritz-Reuter-Realschule, Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Realschule, Albert-Schweitzer-Hauptschule and the Berufsbildenden Schulen I and II.

The Gifhorn railway station where trains from and to Hanover and Wolfsburg stop is in the southern part of the town.

[8] The Bells Palace will host events and exhibitions celebrating peace, freedom and cultural diversity.