I am new to the game and inquiring about this servers population. Are there still a fair amount of people on this server and is it hard to get a group?
The population is still good on this server, in my opinion. There are lots of shouts in Giran from the sellers and Hero Shout is still active.
As for getting groups, that is probably going to be hard pre-40 as most people are working on their mains or sub classes. My advice is get into a clan's academy ASAP and once you are in, talk to your clan mates and learn from them. Before you graduate from the academy, make sure there is someone from the clan that can invite you back (if you like that clan) as you get kicked out of the clan when you do graduate.
Clans that help out new players usually come on here and give you their pitch. Look at other threads on the Sayha page and you can find them pretty easily.