Textile production was the focus of industrial activity in Nijverdal, as it was for the rest of the Twente region.

On 22 March 1945, Nijverdal was severely bombed by allied bombers who were going after the German Reichskommissar of Austrian origin Arthur Seyss-Inquart.

Seyss-Inquart was fleeing the advancing Allied forces and had set up his temporary headquarters in the Reformed School in Nijverdal, but had already left town at the time of the bombing.

This new station is part of the building of the Salland-Twente tunnel, a new 'combination'-tunnel connection which leads the traffic of the N35 and the trains underneath Nijverdal.

Nijverdal has a Water polo club, named Het Ravijn, of which both men and women teams play in the Dutch Premier League.