Number of Students at Hogwarts

[Susan Smith]

No: HPFGUIDX 69201

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "davidbartmess" wrote:

This is one of thoose issues that JKR almost defenetly made a 
mistake.  1000 students in Hogwarts would mean around 250 students 
per house.  <SNIP> ... 35 first year Gryffindors, 35 first year 
Slytherns.... etc).  Now stop to think about that....  35 students in 
single classes, and when 2 houses take classes together (like potions 
where Gryffindors take there class together with the Slytherns)  
there would be 70 students in ONE CLASS!  That's a bit absurd.

<Reply from Atropos G.>

First let me assure you that in public junior high schools all across 
the country the average class size is (good or bad) around 32-35 
students per class period; AND when more than one class joins 
together for certain Electives it is easily 70-75 students for PE, 
music, art, etc.  In public elementary schools, class size can be as 
high as 20-22 students per class; and music, PE and art may have 4 
homerooms at one time (80+ students).  I do not know the figures for 
high school, but Harry's journey began in junior high.  Fellow 
teachers can back me up on this.  In small towns it is sometimes even 
worse because there may only be one or two schools instead of the 30-
40 of a larger area.

<david.bartmess at m...> wrote:

Not to mention the fact that we are only told of about 5 boys in 
Gryffindor that are Harry's age  (Harry, Ron, Nevil, Sean, and 
Dean).  When we concider all this, and do the math it's easy to see 
that 1000 students seems a bit high, but bear in mind that when JKR 
gave this figure, it wasn't part of one of the books where she had 
time to really think about it and do the math work.  She gave that 
figure as part of an interview, where someone threw the question at 
her unexpectedly.  She didn't take time to really think about her 
answer.  The question seemed farily harmless, and probably without 
much thought she gave the figure of around 1,000.

<A.G., again>

Many posts have addressed that we only know Harry and his 4 roommates 
because that is the perspective and point of view JKR chooses to 
share.  But, that does not suggest that other rooms with 4-5 
roommates at the same level do not exist. Since Harry is sharing a 
room with the same 4 guys year after year it is reasonable to think 
that JKR might choose to share those five boys with us.  Posts have 
also speculated that Gryffindor is highly selective and has fewer 
students since it takes the brave and courageous.  While , Hufflepuff 
could be twice as large since they take what is left after the other 
3 houses.  

We really only know the Gryf. common room layout, not dimensions, 
etc.  And, we have little information on the other common rooms, who 
are we to say whether or not HufflePuff can accomodate numerous 
students at different times on different schedules or not.

However, I do think the 1000 is high for a student count.  I have 
chosen to infer that JKR meant total school population, so I like to  
knock off about 125-150 for faculty, administration and all other 
hired help from the count.  That leaves me with about 850 students, 
or four houses of 212 students.  This would mean an average of 30 
students per year in each house.  

If the 30 consists of an equal number of girls and boys.(again just 
an estimate so I can think)  Then  they would only need 3 rooms per 
year in Gryffindor for each sex, or 42 for the house total. I can 
easily envision a castle the size of Hogwarts would have 170 or so 
student rooms.  

Since Harry is sharing a room with the same 4 guys,  year after year-
we get to know these 5 well.  But there could easily be 10 others who 
exist.  After all somebody is filling the stands when there is a 
Quidditch match and based on a description the stands appear to be 
huge.

Just my thoughts.

A.G.