The oldest artifact discovered in the Canton of Zürich is a Stone Age Neanderthal hand axe which was found in Schlieren, and dates back to approximately 100,000 BCE.

In the late 1800s, Schlieren began evolving from a rural agricultural village into a burgeoning urban town, a change driven by the industrial revolution.

Thanks to the proximity to the city of Zürich and the good traffic facilities (Tram, S-Bahn), Schlieren showed a population growth of 10,000 since the 1930s.

Of the rest of the land, 50.7% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (1.7%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

Schlieren has a population (as of 2022[update]) of 20,350, of which 45.9% (9,324 people) are foreign nationals, the highest figure of all municipalities in the canton of Zurich.

[5] Schlieren is home to the Eastern Switzerland Office of the Investigation Bureau for Railway, Funicular and Boat Accidents.

Schlieren railway station is in the geographic centre of the municipality and a stop on lines S3 and S12.

Until recently, it was the terminus of Zürich trolleybus route 31 that replaced the truncated tramway.

The chronicles report about 400 automobiles, counted a total of 142 trains on the railroad and the tramway should have transported 400.000 persons.

It was the most busy traffic, Zurich had ever seen till then, and never at an air show in Switzerland, this amount of spectators was reached again."