Why the number of students is ambiguous

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 86972

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> We've often wondered why JKR seems unsettled as to how 
> many students there are in a House. 70? (7 years times 10 
> students) 200? (The number of Slytherins at a Quidditch match)
> 250? (JKR's interview saying there are about a thousand 
> students at Hogwarts). 
> 
> I think its ambiguous because she is skating her way around 
> group dynamics.  ... edited ...
> 
> Pippin


bboy_mn:

First of all, JKR like any author is not obligated to make the numbers
add up. Her highest priority is to make the world she creates
believable WHEN YOU ARE READING IT, which I think she succeeds at very
nicely.

As I read the books, even now after many re-reads, they seem totally
consistent and believable. It's only after the fact when I attempt to
do detailed analysis and attempt to resolve the number that I see the
inconsistences. 

So JKR has done the only job she is really require to do, and this is
create a believable world.

Points-

JKR said the school was 1,000. My approach when the world doesn't
work, is to invent likely reasons why it could work under those
circumstance. 

The resulting conclusion is that JKR is not giving us a student head
count when she says 1,000; that is, not the size of the current
enrollment, but the size of the school. Regardless of how many
students are enrolled at any given time, the size or capacity, if you
will, of the school remains the same. So, Hogwarts has a capacity of
about 1,000.

Also, keep in mind that there appears to be a significant amount of
the school that is unused; we see many unused classrooms during
Harry's night time strolls.

Seven years, times four houses with 10 people in Harry's Gryffindor
class year becomes (7 X 4 X 10 = 280). 

There is just one problem with that, we are making a great leaping
assumption. We don't know that the class years are divided equally.
The school I went to had an average grade size of 25, however, there
was one class year right in the middle of it all that with only had 15
students. That's a 40% deviation in size.

We also don't know that the houses are equally divided. There are
plenty of people in this world who are hard working (Hufflepuff) and
many people who are intelligent (Ravenclaw), but not that many people
who are outstandingly courageous (Gryffindor) and not that many people
who are excedingly ambitious and cunning (Slytherin).

Logic says there would be many more people in Hufflepuff, since is
real life there are far more factory workers and laborers (Hufflepuff)
than their are managers and executives (Ravenclaw). Extenting that
further, there are far more laborers and executives than there are
notable heroes (Gryffindor) and outstandingly rich and successful
businessmen and politicians (Slytherin). 

I think a very modest ratio (based on real life and right off the top
of my head) would be 3Huf:3Rav:1Gyf:1Sly. I might be persuaded to
modify that to 3H:2R:1G:1S or 2H:2R:1G:1S. 

3Huf:3Rav:1Gyf:1Sly yields a school population of 560.

3H:2R:1G:1S yields a school population of 490.

2H:2R:1G:1S yields a school population of 420.

A far more real life estimated ratio would be 10H:4R:1G:1S which in
turn yields a school population of 1120. (10 laborers: 4 college
students: 1 hero: 1 great success)

Now, the most obvious question is, how can there be so many more
Hufflepuffs when Harry as classes with Hufflepuffs and there only
appears to be 10 in the class? The answer is Harry has the 'overflow'
Hufflepuffs in his class, and there is another full class of
Hufflepuff students.

Illustration of possiblities.
A Single Class Year in Herbology-
Class 1 = 20 Hufflepuffs
Class 2 = 10 Hufflepuffs + 10 Slytherins
Class 3 - 10 Hufflepuffs + 10 Gryffindors

That gives us 40 Hufflepuffs for every 10 Gryffindors.

Remember, that just to illustrate a possibility, not state a likely fact. 

Now, to what I think is the REAL reason why we can get an accurate
count from the available information. Because JKR is busy telling a
story, and she does so in an extremely compact and efficient manner.
There simply isn't time or space to detail and account for all the
deep back ground characters. Let's face it, how many Ravenclaws do we
really know compared to how many are likely to be there. Forget about
the most current book, and the absents of Ravenclaw is even more
glaring. For that matter, how many Gryffindors do we really know by
name? Not that many compared to how many are likely to be there.

The story concentrates on Harry and his small circle of awareness,
that means that many many background characters are going to be
unaccounted for.

As to my IMPRESSION from reading the story, I estimate the current
enrollment between 400 and 600 students in a school with a capacity of
1,000, but then that's just me.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn