In 1861, when a railway Riga–Daugavpils was built, Riga's residents started to build summer cottages here.

The city's coat of arms was granted in 1938, and shows the river and pinewoods of Ogre.

Ogre is the home city for the 2016–2017 Latvian ice hockey champions HK Kurbads.

Whereas Estonian linguist Paul Alvre takes into consideration an older form of the Ogre river's name (Wogene, Woga) first found in Livonian Chronicle of Henry (1180–1227), and argues that it cognates with Estonian word voog (with possible meanings: "stream, flow, waves"), therefore showing connection with Finno-Ugric languages, most probably early Livonian language.

FK Ogre, the city's main association football club, plays in the Latvian First League.