until napoleonic times, laufach belonged to electoral mainz. from 1803 to 1810 it belonged to the principality of aschaffenburg, then passing until 1813 to the grand duchy of frankfurt. since 1814, laufach has been on bavarian soil. at that time, laufach and frohnhofen counted all together 115 houses with 161 households and 1,451 inhabitants. the inflow of those driven from their homelands by the second world war brought the population up to 2,552 in 1950. in 1967 there were more than 3,000 inhabitants in laufach, among them 56 foreigners. with municipal reform in 1978 and the attendant amalgamation of the community of hain im spessart, the population rose to 4,545 all told, 2,995 from laufach, 687 from frohnhofen and 863 from hain. in mid-2001, 5,267 persons were living in laufach, among them 580 foreigners from 42 different nations.