Historically, Redruth was a small market town, overshadowed by its neighbours, until a boom in the need for copper ore in the late 17th Century. Previously discarded as waste by tin miners, copper ore was needed to make brass, an essential metal in Industrial Revolution. Because of this, for about a century, Redruth became one of the richest and largest metal mining area in Britain. The copper ore deposits brought a population boom to the town but most miners families were poor.
By the late 18th Century, most of the copper ore was brought in from abroad and two-thirds of Cornish miners emigrated to the Americas, Australasia and South Africa.
Today, Redruth is a small commercial town with a population of around 12,500 (12,352 in the 2001 census). It is twinned with Plumergat et Meriadec, Brittany, France and Mineral Point, Wisconsin, USA.