In the 1980s years NZFP (and later, mill-owner Carter Holt Harvey Ltd) began to downscale and restructure operations at Kinleith.

Since the late 1980s this ongoing downscaling at Kinleith – and closing of other local industries – resulted in a marked drop in population.

There are many scenic reserves around the town – the artificial Lake Moananui (formed by damming the Matarawa Stream in 1974/75) lies within a recreational park.

As well as the central business district, the township is made up of many subdivisions, each built in different stages of the Kinleith complex's development.

Forest Products Ltd.(builders of the Kinleith mill), Sir David Henry (1888–1963), after places near his hometown of Edinburgh, in Scotland.

[20] The economic lifeblood of Tokoroa is forestry, centred at the nearby Kinleith Mill; and dairy farming.

In 1995, Fonterra built the southern hemisphere's largest cheese factory in Lichfield,[23] some 5 km north of the town.

Due to increases in relative rates of return, large amounts of previously forested land were converted to farmland in the 2000s and 2010s.

Over recent years, the sharp decline in timber processing has seen the majority of raw logs shipped offshore.

These other industries include (but are not limited to): the manufacture of cheese (and related dairy products [via Fonterra]), specialised wooden boxing, timber joinery, saw milling, general engineering, and the quarrying of building (masonry) stone.

Also, Woolworths (a major competitor to Foodstuffs Group) also recently built New Zealand's first Countdown (supermarket) featuring bilingual (i.e. including Te Reo-Māori) signage.

Tertiary education is important to Tokoroa, through Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

It is representative of the Greenman in Welsh mythology and was, prior to 2018, located on State Highway 1, immediately adjacent to the town's information centre.

[60] As part of the CBD Upgrade project, several of the town's Talking Poles were relocated next to where the existing 'Pine Man' sculpture stands in a central area between State Highway One and Leith Place.

[62] Tokoroa's man-made Lake Moana-Nui was created in the late 1970s for the community, involving excavation by large earthmoving equipment and a concrete dam wall with a drain valve control.

A wooden bridge located on the south-west end of the dam wall that supported and controlled the drain valve was a favourite 'bomb' spot, and barefoot skiing down the spillway was early extreme sport unique to Tokoroa.

On many summer afternoons, it was a common sight to see youth lying on the footpath across the road from the lake drying out after a swim.

The lake was subject to regular draining in an effort to control the weed and to flush out the stale, stagnant water.

[63] To date (as at 25 April 2015), Lake Moana-Nui has been fully drained, refilled, and restored – and has been cleared by the local council for public recreation (as it was in its heyday during the 1970s and 80's).

[65] The current location of Tokoroa's library holds many historic memories for the locals – as it was previously the town's cinema.

Tokoroa Hospital provides limited medical services for a population of approximately 22,800 people in the South Waikato District.

There is also a dedicated emergency department with capacity for five patients, and a fully functional theatre suite presently used for minor day surgery.

[67] Tokoroa hosts a number of sporting, cultural and music events every year including the Polynesian festival.

Tokoroa's local schools and preschools give Samoan, Māori and Cook Islands performances, where you hear the Cook Island drumming and dancing and the Māori performing arts being displayed on the huge stage at the new South Waikato Events Centre, located at The Tokoroa Memorial Sports Ground.

The South Waikato district's netball associations also fall under the catchment for inclusion in the ANZ Championship, Waikato/BOP Magic franchise.

[73] In the early 1900s the Taupo Totara Timber Company (TTT) built a 51 miles (82 km) railway between its sawmilling centre at Mokai (near Taupō).

The NZ Government purchased a 19 miles (31 km) section of the TTT Railway, from Putāruru to the "19-Mile Peg", near the present-day location of the Kinleith Paper Mill.

[84] This section was reconstructed under a NZ Government scheme for development of the Waikato River basin and surrounding areas.