Bochum

*Baukem*
*Boochem*
*Bochem*
Baukem; Boochem; Bochem
City
	Flag Coat of arms
	Location of Bochum Lua error in Module:Infobox_mapframe at line 118: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
	Coordinates: 51°28′55″N 07°12′57″E / 51.48194°N 7.21583°ECoordinates: 51°28′55″N 07°12′57″E / 51.48194°N 7.21583°E
Country	Germany
State	North Rhine-Westphalia
Admin. region	Arnsberg
District	Urban district
Government
• Mayor	Thomas Eiskirch (SPD)
Area
• Total	145.4 km2 (56.1 sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes	44701-44894
Vehicle registration	BO, WAT
Website	www.bochum.de

Bochum (/ˈboʊxʊm/ BOHKH-uum, also US: /-əm/ --əm,^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4] German: [ˈboːxʊm] ( listen); Westphalian: Baukem, Low Franconian: Boochem, Old Saxon: Bochem) is a city in the Ruhr area of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is part of the Arnsberg Government Region.

Bochum has about 380,000 inhabitants. The city is formed by the traditional industry of coal mining in the Ruhr area, but today there is no mining in Bochum anymore.

Education

Today the most important institution in Bochum is the Ruhr-University Bochum, one of the biggest German universities. It has an extremely wide spectrum of subjects, beginning with mathematics and science, social sciences, economy, engineering, laws, philosophy, historical subjects, theology, medicine, and languages even including Chinese and Polish.