Wizard Population and Other Schools

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 47133

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., wynnde1 at a... wrote:
> In a message dated 25/11/2002 10:32:40 GMT Standard Time,  
> bboy_mn writes:
> 
> 
> > The size of the economy appears to in indicate a fairly large 
> > wizard population. If we accept that as true, then we have to 
> > figure out where all these missing students are, if they are not
> > at Hoqwarts.
> > 
> > 

> WENDY Replies:
> Well, here's another invitation to explain your theory at a bit 
> more length <g> - on what are you basing your estimates of the 
> "size of the wizard economy?" I'm no economics whiz, but I haven't
>  really noticed much in the books that strikes me one way or the 
> other as indicative of the size of the wizarding economy. 
>
> ...edited... 
> So what have you got? I'd like to hear your evidence before I accept
> your above statement as "true?" 

BBOY_MN reponds in part:

You seem to have missed the long paragraph where I explained that
neither the wizarding population nor the student population can be
resolved.

You also seemed to have overlooked keywords in my statement like -
'appears', 'fairy large' (not huge), and 'if/then'

*IF* we start with the *supposition* that the wizard economy indicates
a *fairly large* population *then* we must reconcile the missing
students. So starting out accepting the *supposition* for sake of
arguement and illustration, I have given a plausable argument
accounting for those missing students.

You also missed that part where I said "Can I prove that? Not if my
life depended on it."

So how large is 'fairly large'? There is a whole business district in
Diagon Alley; food of all types, potions, magical instruments,
transportation devices, Owl Emporium, plus a magical menagerie,
clothing, cauldrons and other accessories, liquor/beer/wine/ale, which
means wineries, distilleries, brewers, and sources of raw material, 
not to mention all the people to run those beverage makers, bottlers,
bottle makers, bottle distributors, things are imported, so there are
importers, which would imply that there are also exporters, fresh
produce, meat, ice cream which means dairies and dairy farms, which
means farms in general, someone has to provide raw material, so we
have miners, foundaries, metal smiths, foresters, cotton growers,
sheep farmer, fabric weavers, clothes manufactureres, chessboard/piece
makers, makers of other toys like gobstones, wizard crackers, two
different brand joke shops, chinaware makers, clay diggers, silver
smiths, jewlers and jewlery makers, someone sells brooms, that means
someone manufacturers broom (at least 3, I think. Comet, Cleansweep,
and ???? those are brands, not models.), someone provides the raw
materials, someone must blow the glass for glassware, someone laid the
streets, someone built the buildings, someone created glass for the
windows, someone crafted the wood for furniture and the bar in the
Leaky Cauldron. 

Hogsmeade is the only all wizarding village in the UK and seems to be
a pretty good sized small town, I live in town of 400 and Hogsmeade
seems bigger than that, it also implies that the are wizarding
villages integrated into other non-wizarding villages, all those towns
need all the goods, services, craftsman, carpenters, cabinet makers,
food, and raw material that the other towns need. 

They have an international bank that seems to hold substantial wealth.
That means vault makers, and coin minters. Speaking of wealth and
vault, they seem to have an aweful lot of vaults for only 20,000 or
30,000 people, or 2,000 or 3,000 depending on your opinion. 

They have hotels/inns; in fact I think there are two in Hogsmeade,
there are none in my hometown of 400, and a one small one in a nearby
town of 1,500.

To support the economy, *I* see, I personally estimate the total
population around 6 figures. Can I prove that? No, I already told you
I couldn't, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

-end bboy_mn this part-


> 
> :-)
> Wendy 
> (Who thinks that Hogwarts is the only wizarding school in the UK -
> ... ... ... And who also believes there can be no more than 800 
> students at Hogwarts, based on the numbers provided at the 
> Gryffindor/Slytherin quidditch match in PoA. How many fewer than 800
> depends ... ... ...
>  So, I'd guess  that total Hogwarts student population is somewhere 
> between 600 and 775, and  probably closer to the larger number.


bboy_mn:

Yeah, that's about my guess too. But even a guess that large has
trouble extrapolating into enough wizards to match the size of economy
that I see.

bboy_mn