26,404 1925: 30,182 1933: 33,441 1939: 35,099 1945: 29,443 1950: 37,674 1961: 45,675 1970: 48,852 1980: 65,352 1987: 67,028 2000: 72,138 2007: 73,560 2010: 73,170 2015: 71,443 Economy Bocholt is a manufacturing town. It was centered on the textile industry for most of the 19th and 20th centuries. Today there are still several successful textile manufacturers in town, but the importance of the textile industry has greatly declined. The major employers today in Bocholt are Gigaset (Communications) and Mechanical Drives (formerly Flender) (Siemens) - a leading manufacturer of transmissions, especially for wind energy plants. Most of Bocholt's industries are smaller and manufacture highly specialized products. Some of them are international leaders in their particular fields - A Good example is the bicycle company ROSE Bikes. Local industries profit from cooperation with the University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule) also located in Bocholt as well as with similar institutions in the region. Bocholt is also a regional centre for shopping in the West-Münsterland area and draws consumers from the neighbouring rural and small town areas of the Netherlands. The town features an attractive old town shopping area as well as a popular new shopping mall. Coat of arms The coat of arms shows a beech tree, which has been the symbol for the city since the 13th century. Bocholt translated into English roughly means "beechwood". Cyclists Bocholt Bocholt is a designated bicycle city, and almost every citizen has one or more bikes, the bicycle network is vast and convenient. In the summer, foreign motorists need to take care because of the popularity of cycling in the city, and even in winter, many people travel only by bike. Group cycling tours, called "Pättkestouren", are particularly popular in the spring. Between 2005 and 2006 the city of Bocholt won the ADFC and BUND title of "most bicycle-friendly city in Germany" in the category of cities under 100,000 inhabitants. Bocholt is the first city in Germany to have a guarded bike station at a Bustreff and not at a railway station. A second bike station in Bocholt went into operation in 2008. Transport Bocholt is the last stop on a 25-minute 2-way-1-track train route starting in Wesel traveling north to Bocholt. From Wesel one can transfer to trains that travel south to Düsseldorf Airport, Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof or northwest to Emmerich am Rhein or Arnhem in the Netherlands. In 2021 a new railway line between Bocholt