Student population at Hogwarts--Prefects

[jenfold at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 18446

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Deeblite <deeblite at h...> wrote:
> I don't know if this has been discussed here before or not, but I 
know it 
> has been in the alt.fan.harry-potter newsgroup.
> 
> Has anybody figured out the approximate number of students that 
attend 
> hogwarts?   Based on the numer of students in Harry's dorm, 
assuming that's 
> about average for the students in each house in every year, there 
should be 
> somewhere around 300 students. (high estimate.  Assuming it's 5 
students in 
> each dorm, male and female dorms, 7 years, 4 houses, there should 
be 280 
> students).  Now, in GoF, at the Yule ball,there were around 100 
> tables,  and each table held 12 people.  1200 seats.   Now, I know 
this was 
> also to account for the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students,but I 
figure 
> there couldnt have been more than 100 of them overall. That leaves 
about 
> 1100 seats  And there were almost no hogwarts students over 4th 
year there, 
> and not even all the 4th years and above would have been there.  
Based on 
> this, it would seem the 300 student estimate seems FAR too low.  
So, what 
> does everyone think about this?

 I believe that JKR has said herself in an interview that Hogwarts 
has about 1000 students. And remember JKR is always right, except 
when she or her publishers are wrong.

 From what we see of Harry's year this seems to be an overestimation 
of numbers but it's fairly likely that Harry's year could be small 
due to the war against Voldemort. As from what we've seen in the 
books a great number of wizarding families were wiped out, so the 
population size and number of children born would drop dramatically.
 I'd guess that from 1981 onwards there was probably a baby boom and 
the size of the years below Harry may be much larger. 


 Which brings me to another point that I find a little strange the 
discussions about who will be prefect suggest 2 per year for years 
5,6 and 7, per house and therefore a total of 24 prefects in the 
school. To me this number seems a little low although I am slightly 
biased the school I went to had 900 pupils and each of its four 
houses provided 12 prefects, however most people I know went to 
schools with similar proportions of prefects. To me 24 prefects just 
doesn't feel like enough to patrol the school corridors during breaks 
using their powers (for good or for ill).

 Anyway after that ramble I think it could be quite possible that 
more than 2 Gryffindors become prefects in Harry's year, but I'm 
still not sure who, apart from Hermione.  

 Muddying the waters

 Jen