Wizarding Population

[mikaelraaterova]

No: HPFGUIDX 83022

Robert Shaw pointed out that the wizarding population isn't steady 
and wrote:
> All this means we can't deduce much from the population of
> Hogwarts.

I have to disagree. Populations don't change overnight. The only 
population-affecting event in recent history that we know about is 
Voldemort's reign of terror. While we don't have figures for the 
number of dead, it doesn't seem like a genocide, and thus wouldn't 
have had any overwhelming effect on the population. If JKR says that 
the number of students at Hogwarts around the time of GoF is about 
1000, we can deduce quite a lot. 

I can't see the WW having wildly changing fertility rates, given that 
the population explosion in the RW depended on decreased mortality 
with unchanged, high fertility. When fertility started dropping, the 
growth stopped, and any growth we see today are in areas where 
fertility hasn't dropped. I think WW mortality rates and fertility 
rates have been pretty low for ages. Wizards have lots of healing 
spells, and I definitely can't see that witches are restricted to a 
life of breeding and house-wifery. The liberation of women was the 
significant factor in dropping RW fertility levels, and I'd hazard 
that witches have always been liberated, with good control of their 
child-bearing.

/ Mikael