# of Students

[milz]

No: HPFGUIDX 3959

It might not make any sense if there are 143 students per year 
enrolled in Hogwarts, but Rowling said it and this is her world...so 
she's the boss! ;-)

Hogwarts is a magical castle. I have the impression from the 
description in SS/PS that it is huge. I can see the Common Rooms 
holding two hundred students at any one time (some ball rooms in the 
Ritz-Carleton or other *big* hotels have a capacity of 300). Perhaps 
the rooms stretch or contract to fulfill the needs of the students. 

My grad school class numbered 200. There were times when the class
was 
divided in half to accomodate us and there were times when the halves 
were divided into smaller groups. Furthermore, I didn't *know* 
everyone in that class of 200. I knew them all by face. I knew the 
ones in my half by face and first names. But I didn't hang out with 
all of them. I did belong to a study group of 5 people. These were
the 
people I *knew*. In my letters and phone conversations to home, these 
were the people I mentioned since they were in my "sphere of
friends". 
We only see Harry's sphere of friends. Of the students in the years 
above me and below me I knew only a dozen or so. 

About "baby booms", if I recall correctly, the current "baby boomers" 
are those people born between 1940-1960. But the real baby boom 
occurred during the war years of 1940-1945 and spilled over to the 
mid-1950s, which included the Korean War. The boom was followed by a 
"bust" (the current "Gen-Xers"). If the same reproductive pattern 
occured during the Voldemort years, it is very possible that Hogwarts 
could admit 146 students per year during Harry's time at Hogwarts.
The 
classes following Ginny's would be populated with the "bust"
children. 
:-) Milz