Perm's position on the navigable Kama River, leading to the Volga, and on the Siberian Route across the Ural Mountains, helped it become an important trade and manufacturing centre.

Modern Perm is still a major railway hub and one of the chief industrial centers of the Urals region.

A major petroleum refinery uses oil transported by pipeline from the West Siberian oilfields, and the city's large chemical industry makes fertilizers and dyes.

The city's institutions of higher education include the Perm A.M. Gorky State University, founded in 1916.

The name Perm is of Uralic etymology (Komi-Permyak: Перем, Perem; Komi: Перым, Perym).

In the 19th century, Perm became a major trade and industrial centre with a population of more than 20,000 people in the 1860s, with several metallurgy, paper, and steamboat producing factories, including one owned by a British entrepreneur.

After the outbreak of the Russian Civil War, Perm became a prime target for both sides because of its munitions factories.

It was heavily rumored from July–September 1918 that the Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and her four daughters were imprisoned at the perception and Berezine buildings.

On December 25, 1918, the Siberian White Army under Anatoly Pepelyayev (who acknowledged the authority of the Omsk Government of Aleksandr Kolchak), took Perm.

In the 1930s, Perm grew as a major industrial city with aviation, shipbuilding, and chemical factories built during that period.

On September 20, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at Perm State University, resulting in six fatalities and 47 injuries.

Due to its far inland location, there is a distinct lack of seasonal lag resulting in rapid cooling down of the warm weather as days get shorter.

[23] Several major industrial companies are located in Perm: Perm Motors and Aviadvigatel, major suppliers of engines to the Russian aircraft industry; rocket engine company Proton-PM, which will mass-produce the RD-191 engine for the upcoming Angara rocket family; electric engineering firms Morion JSC, Perm Scientific and Industrial Group, and Perm Electrical Engineering Plant; Russia's largest exporter of cables and wires, JSC KAMKABEL; and oil and natural gas companies such as LUKoil-Perm Ltd. and LUKoilPernefteprodukt Ltd.[22] Perm is an important railway junction on the Trans-Siberian Railway with lines radiating to Central Russia, the north part of the Urals, and the far east of Russia.

[24] Perm is served by the international airport Bolshoye Savino, which is located 16 km (9.9 mi) southwest of the city.

A feasibility study was compiled in 1990, but economic difficulties during the decade prevented its final planning and construction.

It is situated in the central part of the city on Lenin Street, in front of the Organ Concert Hall and close to the building of Legislative Assembly of Perm Krai.

The author of the sculpture is Vladimir Pavlenko, a monumentalist sculptor from Nizhny Tagil, member of the Artists' Union of Russia and UNESCO International Association of Arts.

The Nobel-prize-winning writer Boris Pasternak (1890–1960) lived in Perm for a time, and it figures in his novel Doctor Zhivago under the fictional name "Yuriatin" where Yuri sees Lara again in the public library.