After the decline of the mining industry in the 1970s, people who depended on the coal left town. The population fell from more than 40,000 to only about 10,000 or so today. Roughly 60 % of the current population is Hakka, and there are also about 2,400 Sasaiyat and Atayal aboriginal people.
隨著民國六十餘年礦業的沒落，南庄的繁華不再，為謀生存人口不斷外移，從極盛時期的四萬多人，如今剩下一萬多人，其中除了六成以上的客家族群外，賽夏族與泰雅族人口約有二千四百餘人。