Number of Students at Hogwarts

[Jim Ferer]

No: HPFGUIDX 76832

bibphile:"The information we're given in the books is very
inconsitent.  For example at one quidditch game we're told there are
800 people in the stands."

I missed that one. Where was it?  Actually, people in the stands would
be one of the easier things for low number advocates to explain; the
extra people are alumni/school Quidditch fans/Hogsmeade residents out
for a game.

Of course, this is one of the oldest debates in the fandom.  The very
popular 300 number has a lot of things going for it - the number of
teachers, the number of students in Harry's dorm, other things - but
has a lot of problems too, IMO.  There's a new datum in favor of a
higher number, too: in Snape's memory of his own OWL, there are over
100 tables in the Great Hall, each with a student seated in it for a
test.  Since the test-takers are fifth years, and we haven't heard
that the fifth year was unusal in terms of numbers, then that's
something over 700 students.  The answer low-number advocates might
give is that the wizard population declined as a result of the war in
the intervening years, and that's plausible, I guess, but lacking in
backup.

SOME DATA FAVORING HIGHER NUMBERS OF STUDENTS:

Seating for a 1,000+ persons at the Yule Ball in GoF
Over 100 students (fifth years) taking OWL's in Snape's time
100+ carriages that take at least four to six students from Hogsmeade
Station to the school (first years in the boats)

A COUPLE OF ARGUMENTS FOR A HIGHER NUMBER OF STUDENTS

If the school population is 300, and Hogwarts is *the* wizarding
school for Britain, then the wizard population is very, very low, too
low to sustain all the business and industry they have.

Why the huge castle for 300 students?  I've been in a couple of
castles, and they're *huge.*  Why?

300 is lower than you think.  My daughters' elementary school is 466
students, and it's not big at all.  True, there's no dorms and the
Great Hall, aka the All Purpose Room, doesn't hold the whole student
body,  but still.  (BTW, there's 11 elementary schools in town for a
population of 55,000 people; work it out and you see the problem for
wizarding society if there's only 300 students)

We see more mixing of students and classes in later years.  It would
seem there have to be sections and subjects we aren't seeing; if not,
where are all the upperclassmen spending their time?

I understand the objections based on the number of teachers and
students we see, and I can't answer some of them.  However:  we have
to remind ourselves that the Harry Potter stories are not a window
into the wizarding world, they're a tiny little peephole.  They leave
out much more than they include.   That's unavoidable.