The Han Chinese started to develop the Nanjuang area in 1818. Later, Huang Chiying and others from Meixian arrived with their families and major parts of the cultivation were taken care by them. In 1826, Huang led Nanjuang habitants and united people originated from Guangdung province to participate armed fights in Junggang area. The Qing government sent armies of repression. Huang and other were caught and Han Chinese were deported from Nanjuang, and the lands thus were return to the hands of aboriginals. It is not until 1886 that the Han Chinese re-entered and settled in Nanjuang. 

In sense of distribution of ethnical groups, Han Chinese reside in flatlands, and make their living from agricultural activities, business and trading. There are nine villages in Nanjuang. Most villagers of the seven villages, including Yuanlin, Nanfu, Tianmei, Shishan, Dung Village, Shi Village and Nanjian, and some of the Penglai and Dunghe are Hakka. Aboriginal people live close to the mountain areas. The Atayals were originally around Fengmei village and Shibi tribe. However, these two villages were destroyed by typhoons in early 1970s. Villagers were relocated to other areas in Nanjian, and Fengmei was incorporated into Dunghe. In terms of population, the Saisiat is the second smallest tribe in Taiwan and only about five thousand people remain. The Saisiat that live in Miaoli County are called ‘Dunghe Group’, and can be found in some villages in Nanjuang. 

Some Saisiat moved to Shiangtian Lake about four hundred years ago, and the numbers grew up to more than sixty families in 1945. However, due to inconveniences of transportation, unemployment and social changes in recent years, villages emigrated out of this area and the number thus reduced to thirty families, about two hundred habitants. In any case, it is still the biggest Saisiat group in the area. In the early years, the outnumbered Atayal and the gradual expansion of cultivation into the mountain area by the Han Chinese forced the Saisiat to survive in relatively small area, and the traditional Saisiat culture is continuously disappearing. The remaining biannual festival, Pas-ta’ai, is the only ceremony that is completely preserved. 

Nanjuang has a population of twelve thousand people. In terms of ethnical groups, Hakka is still the biggest, followed by Minnan, Atayal and Saisiat. According to the data collected in 2002, there are 3445 households with a total number of 12532 people (6986 males and 5547 females) in Nanjuang. There are 575 aboriginal households in total. 2158 aboriginal individuals (1257 males and 901 females) live in flatlands and 81 individuals (17 males and 64 females) live in mountain area, 2239 people in total.