What do wizards do?

[jsherman6]

No: HPFGUIDX 53913

Jeremy Wrote:
> I have been wondering what exactly wizards DO with their time.  I 
mean,
> I know they must work and have jobs, but I can't think of there 
being
> enough non-muggle jobs for all of them.  Here's my logic:
> 
> First we need a rough estimate of the wizard population.  I start 
with
> two liberal assumptions: JKR is right about there being 1000 
students at
> Hogwarts, and that the average wizard lives to about 200 years old. 
> This leads to the following equation:
> 1000 students / 7 years = 143 students per year
> 143 students per year * 200 years = 28,600 wizards
> 
> 1430 children (143 per year * the ten years until they get to 
Hogwarts)
> aren't in school yet (assuming that Hogwarts is the only Wizarding
> school,) plus the 1000 students at Hogwarts equals 2,430 children 
who
> aren't yet in the wizarding work force.
> 
> This leaves 26,170 adult wizard of working age (assuming no post
> graduate work after Hogwarts)  Also bear in mind that some (probably
> small) percentage of them are squibs.
> 
> ....................................

Me:

To tell you the truth I thought your estimate was a bit low.  Which 
would just help reinforce your argument about too many Wizards and 
not enough jobs.  

Remember that not every child gets to go to Hogwarts.  I think there 
are other schools around the United Kingdom that we just haven't 
heard about yet.

Wizard or not, 200 is pretty old.  I think you forgot about the 
retirement community who has no need to work any more.  Maybe there 
is a WW form of social security.

As for you Quidditch team conundrum, I thought that those 90 some odd 
teams were located around the world.  Even Pro baseball doesn't have 
that many teams in the United States.  Or if they are all located in 
the United Kingdom, I am sure players from others countries would 
come to play for certain teams, much like they do here for baseball, 
basketball, hockey, etc...

So now say that most Wizards retire around 160.  I used that number 
since the average retirement age for Muggles is 65 which is 4/5 of 
the total average life span (~80).  Therefore (4/5) * 200 = 160.  So 
Wizards are non working for about 57 years of their lives (200 - 160) 
+ 10 + 7 = 57 ----> (Life Span - Retirement Age) + Childhood + Years 
at School.  

So using your numbers I would guess that there are about 20,449 
working Wizards (143 * 143).  You could also figure if the 
unemployment rate is similar to Muggles (5.8%) then another 1,198 
Wizards are not working.  So, my new total would be around 19,251 
working Wizards.  I don't think this is too unreasonable.

I am sure between Government, Schooling, Commercial, and 
Entertainment the WW has plenty of job opportunities.

-jack- (who realized he has way to much time on his hands)