It is a relatively large agricultural town in the semi-arid Great Karoo; its economy is based on farming goats, sheep, fruits, and vegetable.

Following the arrival of the early Dutch, German and Huguenot pioneer settlers in 1727–1728, the area was settled by 18 Trekboer farmer families who trekked up from Riebeek-Kasteel and Swellendam, led by the Meiring, Bezuidenhout, Botha, van Rooyen, van Heerden, Holtzhausen, Eksteen, Du Plooy, Roussouw, Joubert and Viljoen families, who established sheep and orange farms in the area.

In the 1760s the Commando organised long range punitive and reconnaissance raids deep into Beaufort West and Nelspoort to recover cattle and sheep.

They also briefly clashed with a VOC Commissioned platoon of similar strength led by Field Cornet Arnoldus van der Merwe and Kapitein Gerhardus Swanepoel that trekked up from Oudtshoorn.

In the 1870s, the government of Prime Minister John Molteno oversaw a massive expansion of the Cape Colony's railway system.

[2] The route (chosen by the prime minister with a map, pen and ruler) ran past a farm named Vischkuil-aan-de-Buffelsrivier (fish pond on the Buffalo River) which a man called Stephanus Greeff then bought for the purpose of development.

It was soon renamed Nassau to avoid confusion with Buffalo River in East London, and finally changed to the name Laingsburg, after John Laing who was Commissioner of Crown Lands at the time.

On 25 January 1981, in Laingsburg's centennial year, the larger part of the town was swept away within minutes by one of the strongest floods ever experienced in the Great Karoo.

After a cloud burst to the north-eastern hinterland, south of the Komsberg, a massive wall of water rushed down the Buffels River and swept away everything it encountered in its way.

Laingsburg's economy is mainly based on farming of goats, sheep, lucerne (Alfalfa), fruit and vegetables.