The city subdivisions, called Katastralgemeinde (Cadastre), are Kledering, Mannswörth, Rannersdorf and Schwechat.

Home to the settlement Ala Nova of the Roman Empire, the city was first mentioned in a document in 1334.

[citation needed] The meeting at Schwechat of Emperor Leopold I with Jan Sobieski in 1683, after the liberation of Vienna, is commemorated by an obelisk.

The city's oil refinery was a bombing target of the Allied Oil Campaign of World War II, with the southern aviation plant complex of the Heinkel firm (Germany-based at Rostock-Schmarl as Heinkel-Nord, the Schwechat offices/facility was called Heinkel-Süd) also targeted in late 1943 and lasting through the spring of 1944.

Since 2017 it belongs to Bruck an der Leitha District because Wien-Umgebung was dissolved at the end of 2016.