The area underwent rapid industrialization (coal, steel, zinc) in the 19th and the beginning of 20th century.

Several Polish teachers from present-day Ruda Śląska were murdered by the Germans in concentration camps as part of the Intelligenzaktion.

[6] The Germans also established and operated a Polenlager forced labour camp for Poles in the present-day district of Kochłowice,[7] and the E83 forced labour subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp in the present-day district of Chebzie.

In 1945, the German occupation ended, and the area was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the fall of communism in the 1980s.

Since 2007, Ruda Śląska has been a member of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union (predecessor to the Metropolis GZM), the largest legally recognized urban area in Poland.

Ruda Śląska is a seat of the Higher Academy of Commerce (Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa).