Number of students at Hogwarts

[Steve Binch]

No: HPFGUIDX 51701

Tom Wall wrote:
> mysmacek writes:
> - it seems to me, that during POA, there has to be about 10 first
> years in each house - certainly less than 20. The canon for that is
> that for R&H to miss the sorting ceremony, it would have to be a
> really short one, since their calling off by McGonnagall does not seem
> like a long one - and don't forget that the ceremony did not start
> when they left.
>
> Someone:
> Scholastic's website has several JKR Q&A sessions online.
>
> Here's the URL for the following canon:
> http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter/author/transcript2.htm
>
> -----
> Q: How many students attend Hogwarts, and how many
>    students per year per house?
> A: There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts.
> -----
>
> If we do the math, we get:
>
> 1000/4 = 250
> 250 /7 = ~35
>
> So, about 35 students per year per house.
>
> Of course, that's assuming that each year,
> roughly the same number of students come
> to the school, and that out of that total,
> each house gets roughly the same number of
> students.
>
> So, apparently, we haven't even met half
> of 'em in Harry's year alone.
>
> -Tom

I think that if JKR said there is about 1000 students, there must be about
1000 students. Who are we to argue with the only truly omnipotant being in
the Potter universe? Coming from a large American high school myself with
1000 students just in my graduating class, I can see why the other 700 (or
whatever) students get omitted. Even though there were so many students at
my school, I rarely interacted with students outside my circle of friends,
and when I did, it was nothing to write about. In fact, after 8 years, I
could probably only remember about 20 names. Just because Harry doesn't
mention them, doesn't mean they aren't there, it just means they don't add
to the story. If something doesn't add to the story, leave it out.

-Steve