Town council's 24 seats are apportioned as follows, in accordance with municipal elections held on 26 September 2004: Note: UWG is a citizens' coalition.

[1] Owing to Nieheim's advantageous location on the north–south-running East Westphalia Road (Ostwestfalenstraße), otherwise known as Federal Highway (Bundesstraße) B252, connections to Autobahnen A 2 (Hanover-Ruhr area) and A 44 (Dortmund-Kassel) are right at hand.

The Catholic Parish Church of Saint Nicholas with its artistically relief-decorated baptismal font and late Gothic little sacramental house has parts that were built as early as the 13th century.

Also, the Pan-German Education Centre of Youth in Europe (Gesamtdeutsche Bildungsstätte der Deutschen Jugend in Europa) in Nieheim-Himmighausen offers extensive seminars for groups geared towards various ends.

If dairy cows or horses are to be kept in the paddock ringed by one of these braided hedges, blackthorn twigs are also tied onto the inside to thwart any nibbling.

As a relic of an almost forgotten communication technology, a reconstructed optical telegraph station still stands high over the countryside near Oeynhausen.

Nieheim considers itself a stronghold of East Westphalian carnival custom, and the Rosenmontagsumzug – a colourful parade – is the high point of the season.

In the ecclesiastical field, Dietrich von Nieheim (1338/48 - 1418), who served three popes and was held in high regard in the Roman Curia, achieved international recognition, if not outright fame.

This is also said of Hugo Makibi Enomiya-Lassalle (1898–1990), a Jesuit priest, a religious philosopher, a meditation teacher and the builder of the Peace Church in Hiroshima born on the Externbrock estate near Nieheim.