According to 1981 census of Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 population of Jhang was 1,970,944 with the 434,495 housing units in Jhang. In 1998 census, population of Jhang was 2,834,545, whose annually growth rate was 2.16%. Male population was 1,474,099 (52.00%) and female population was 1,360,446 (48.00%). Languages mostly spoken in Jhang are Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

, Saraiki

Saraiki language

Saraiki , transliterated as Sirāikī and sometimes spelled Seraiki and Saraiki, is a standardized written language of Pakistan belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages. It is a language spoken in the heart of Pakistan...

 and Urdu.

The area was inhabited at the time of Alexander but the present city of Jhang is said to have been founded in the twelwth century by syed jalal-ud-din bukhari (in 1134 AD according to some sources).Its first inhabitants were sials who were followers ( mureed) of syed jalal-ud-din bukhari.It was then destroyed by the river and re-founded during the reign of Aurangzeb

Aurangzeb

Abul Muzaffar Muhy-ud-Din Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir , more commonly known as Aurangzeb or by his chosen imperial title Alamgir , was the sixth Mughal Emperor of India, whose reign lasted from 1658 until his death in 1707.Badshah Aurangzeb, having ruled most of the Indian subcontinent for nearly...

 by syed Mehboob alam ( shah jewna) who asked his (mureeds) followers to settle again in that area in year1402 AD .Under Mughal rule, the city flourished and was notable for commerce and trade.

During British Rule

British Raj

British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...

, the towns of Jhang and Maghiana, lying two miles apart, became a joint municipality, then known as Jhang-Maghiana.

Jhang-Maghiana became a municipality in 1867.