The city, located on the river Durme, the Lede, and the E17 motorway, has more than 42,100 inhabitants who are called Lokeraars or Rapenfretters.

The city center itself is in fact a major junction of regional roads connecting Lokeren with other important places.

From the Middle Ages to the end of the 18th century, the territory of Lokeren fully belonged to the Count of Flanders.

This castle was demolished in the early 17th century after the lord sold the land to the city council.

In the 16th and 17th century, the whole Waasland was in the line of fire between Protestant Netherlands and Catholic Spain, often with terrible consequences for the local population.

The consequence of this (partial) depopulation was that many agricultural lands were no longer worked, becoming overgrown by wild vegetation.

In the course of the 17th century, the city council tried to acquire plots of land adjacent to the Markt from their owners.

Lokeren was the center of the oldest Flemish flax region, which included part of the Waasland and Dendermonde.

[5] After the French Revolution, the area was made part of the new Département de l'Escaut, with Lokeren at the head of a canton.

In 1725 the Church of Saint Laurence was built on the Markt.In December 1845, the college of aldermen asked the governor whether the city could build a station and a railway bridge over the Durme.

The station opened on 7 August 1847 and was located north of the Durme, in the lake area, just under 400 meters from the Markt.

In Lokeren people did not feel compelled to build factories because the cottage industry was still sufficiently profitable.

Bombed-out houses were renovated or rebuilt, and the badly damaged station was demolished and replaced by a more modern one.

Factories in the center continued to operate until the 1980s, when it was decided that all industrial activities should be better located outside the city core.

With the decline of the secondary sector from the 1950s onward, large factories in the city center such as Nijverheidstraat, Oude Durme, Hoedhaar, etc.

New industrial areas were planned outside the city center at Den Oever, Rozen and Everslaar.

The chocolatier Callebaut bought a large piece of land where the largest chocolate warehouse in Europe would later be built.

On 14 July 1970, Lokeren was the scene of a sporting disaster, when a minibus carrying a team of speedway riders from West Ham, London, was involved in a collision with a petrol tanker.