It was formed in 2012, combining the territory of the former Shuanghu Special District (Chinese: 双湖特别区, Tibetan: མཚོ་གཉིས་དམིགས་བསལ་སྲིད་འཛིན་ཁུལ་) with the eastern half of Nyima County.

Shuanghu County is at very high elevation, mostly above 5,000 meters above sea level, and very sparsely populated (averaging around 0.12 people per square kilometre, but concentrated in the southern portion of the county).

The vast majority of its population practices nomadic pastoralism (mostly goats and sheep).

There is a weather station in Shuanghu, established in 1999,[9] which on average measures negative temperatures (Celsius scale) throughout the year.

The highest temperature on record is +2.3 °C (July 2000), the lowest −62.4 °C (January 2006).