280 Students?

This makes sense.....

JK Said there are about a thousand students at Hogwarts, but I just don't buy it.....

I think there are 5 boys, and 5 girls, per house, per year.....

this makes more sense, since there are so few teachers to go around.....

so, in Harry's first year the new Griffyndor boys are: Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville

and the new Gryffindor girls are: Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, ?, ?

this makes sense, ONLY until we discover a 6th person in somebody (Harry, Ginny, etc.) Year, in the same house......

anybody catch my drift?

this would also explain the dormotory arrangement, 5 Four-Posters per dorm........with each year of each house occupying it......

each dorm is kept by the same group ALL SEVEN YEARS, and after the seventh year, it's vacated, and the first years occupy it......

in the case of Fred and George, their dorm is now two beds vacant

in the case of Marcus Flint, they probably hadda put a sixth bed in his dorm (since he was held back a year)

There are more students in some houses than in others, such as you notice that Hufflepuff always seems to get more than the others. I can't figure out how there are 1000 students, but Jo Rowling's the boss, and maybe, someday she'll enlighten us.

I always thought that was wierd, as well. It seems like there's only a handful of teachers ... and magic or not, a big classroom of 50 kids to one teacher is next to impossible.

I dunno......the way she writes it, it appears that it's a smaller school than every makes it out to be.....

I remember there is a thread about it somewhere in the Great Hall before book 5 saw the sunlight.
It could be possible to imagine 1,000 students in Hogwarts.
That will make like 250 students per house (1,000 divided by 4) and 35 students per year/ per house (250 divided by 7 years). So, Harry's partners must be around 30, and probably using several dormitories. In Snape's class with Slythering, we should have about 70 students in the class. Hmmm..that sounds a lot, but not an unimaginable figure

JKs the boss... suppose we have to listin to her!!

How many teachers are at hogwarts?? we only heard of like 7 or something so how can 7 teachers teach 1000 more then once a week?

As far as students i too will say dosent seem to be as many as is indicated. I too would think there would be about 70 people in each house

as far as teacher, im sure they have others we dont know about Harry dosent take all the classeds that are offered there. which is why we woudlnt come across all the teacher id think theyd have at least 15 to 20 total

lets just all promise that if any of us ever get to ask JKR a question in an online chat or something that we will ask her to explain this phenomenon/misunderstanding. ^_^

yes, that sounds good

But even so, it is a bit annoying until it all gets explained.

I can't imagine how there are 1000 students either. The math doesn't work out, that would mean the dormitories would have to be huge, and the same with the common room.. And in the books, it doesn't seem as though the common rooms are very full... But perhaps the students are just somewhere else... Bah, I'm confounding myself now.

All of the teachers that I can think of are McGonagal, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, Hagrid/Grubbly Plank, Sinistra, Trelawney/Firanze, Binns, DADA (different every year), Victor (Arithmancy),Ancient Runes teacher (I don't know who) and the Muggle Studies teacher (I don't know who).

That's all I can think of but if there are 7 years at Hogwarts, that means that there are about 1.7 teachers per year and that doesn't work out.

Maybe I have forgoten some, but they will still be short of 1 teacher for each class of 35 students.

They are able to magically stretch interiors (remember the cars that were huge inside and small outside from PoA). That would solve the dorm room size.

I was thinking about how the classes could be held and worked out:

1. That if a class combined two houses in each year a teacher could teach all 7 years, in 5 days with 3 classes a day if each class met only once a week.
2. That if a class had one house per class it would take 6 classes a day if each class met only once a week.

This assumes that NEWT level classes are taught by house and year. I suspect they may be combined, and that would lower the number of classes needed to be taught. When you have once class for all NEWT level potions in 6th year and another for 7th year that cuts down the classes from 4 to 2, and in DADA where each house has individual classes, it cuts it down from 8 to 2.

Anyway, it is possible in theory to instruct everyone at Hogwarts based on this information. But it's really at the margin. If classes meet more than once a week nothing fits anymore. And it doesn't explain Astronomy - which meets at midnight for Harry's class. Are other classes held at 11pm or 3am?

I did up a quick chart and attached it.

I have worked out maps of the dormotories, and it doesn't seem inconcievable that there could be accomodation for more than 280 students, but it's illogical........

There are 200 people in Slytherin alone, and that's 1/4 of the school, so 800 people is a better estimate.

I don't know whether or not 1,000 students could actually fit in the dormitiories...but JKR said that there was about 1,000 students in the school and I'm going to take her word for it until she says otherwise. Also, I have also been trying to figure it out mathimatically and ended up with 250 people per house and about 35 people per year. To me, that sounds somewhat reasonable. So that would mean that 140 students would come in every year and about 140 would leave. If anyone wants an explination...just tell me. But I think it sounds reasonable to believe that there are about 1,000 students in Hogwarts.

In Chamber of Secrets, when Harry and Ron get to their dorm, there is a placard on the door reading "Second Years"

there are only 5 beds in that dorm, and thus it does give credence to my theory.....

it doesn't say "Second Years: Dorm One" and it doesn't say "Second Years: Finnegan, Longbottom, Potter, Thomas, Weasley" indicating what second years would sleep there, it simply says "Second Years", indicating that ALL second years sleep there........

maybe the placard reading "second years" means only half/part/a fraction of the gryffindor second years??

this is so confusing!!!!! at the next JKR online chat, someone MUST ask her about this!!!!!!

When Ron and Hermione go to show the first years to the dorms, theres a bunch of them. All of the students in each house won't be in the same dorm room. It's just that we don't hear about them because Harry doesn't know them. I mean he has a dorm with Seamus and Dean but we hardly even hear about them. There are also probably a lot of teachers we don't hear about. 1000 is actually quite a logical number.

I think there are only 280 students too.

5 girls and 5 boys(10) in each year times 7 years equals 70 students per year times the number of house (4) equals 280 students. Plus those that were held back...

Maybe Gryffindor just has 5 boys and it's confusing us. I mean, other houses could have 7 boys and 5 girls or something, you know?

Someone suggested before OotP came out that Harry's year (and the surrounding years) may have had fewer students. Lets face it, when Voldemort is at the height of his power you don't really want to start a new family.

The theory also predicts that there would have been a baby boom after Voldemort disappeared so the classes two and three years younger than Harry may have more students.

quite possible now you think about it

i thought only 280 students but it could be second years, and there could be many rooms in that area... we probably just dont hear about the others... it would be hard to write about 1000 different students!

and hogwarts is the biggest school

it doesn't say "Second Years: Dorm One" and it doesn't say "Second Years: Finnegan, Longbottom, Potter, Thomas, Weasley" indicating what second years would sleep there, it simply says "Second Years", indicating that ALL second years sleep there........

I agree. There's no way there's another group of Gryffindors in Harry's year that we've never once heard about. If J. K. Rowling had that in mind she would have mentioned something.

280 sounds like a good approximation to me. I don't take J. K. Rowling's word for it. She has many skills, but estimation apparently isn't one of them. She seems to like excess in numbers (right down to the number of helpings they have a meal times). Maybe we should politely ignore mentions of the numbers of students at Quidditch and so forth, or take it as an exaggeration...

Actually, when I did the addition in my head, I got about 280, too. We actually haven't seen too many Hufflepuffs. I agree that there was a baby boom after Voldemort dissapeared. I also think that the grades younger than Harry have few slytherins. Most of the death eaters have kids in Harry's year. We have only heard about 1 younger slytherin I think, at the sorting.

I always thought that was wierd, as well. It seems like there's only a handful of teachers ... and magic or not, a big classroom of 50 kids to one teacher is next to impossible.

It's not impossible. When I was 12, my class had 50 students (30 girls and 20 boys) and the other classes had about 50 students each as well. And we all got fairly good results in exams.. so that's not impossible. ;)

I got 280 to, but in one of the books it is said:
"Behind the Slytherin goal posts,
however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of
Slytherin glittered on their flags"...
so with 200 slyherins the logical number is 200*4 = 800!!

I got 280 to, but in one of the books it is said:
"Behind the Slytherin goal posts,
however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of
Slytherin glittered on their flags"...
so with 200 slyherins the logical number is 200*4 = 800!!


But it says 200 PEOPLE, that could be teachers that support them, people from hogsmede, parents, and other relatives. I went to a small high school (in the US) that had about 280-300 kids. But on friday nights during football season we could have 600-800 people, from our town & the opposing team's, in the stands. So a large number for a quiditch match wouldn't seem that unreasonable to me.

Mags

Just thought I'd mention the quote from this morning's chat, regarding two more Gryffindor girls in Harry's year, that would round out an even 10 students.

~ Quote ~
Adele: Who are the two "unknown Gryffindor girls" in Harry's year?
JK Rowling replies -> Oh, I've just understood what you mean. I haven't got the notebook to hand and I can't remember! That's terrible. I'll try and remember before the end of the chat!
~ End Quote ~

So that implies that there are indeed two more girls we just haven't heard about. If we haven't heard about these two girls in five years, are there possibly more boys we haven't heard about?

I've always stood by the 280 number, but it's her story and her school, and if she says 1000 who am I to argue? :)

Well it always seems that just the Gryffindor 6thyears can take up one class.

My thoughts are that the books focus on only a minor portion of the school.
When I was in school I didn't associate with everyone or every teacher. The books are about Harry and the people that he associates with.

140 first years? in the PoS Hagrid said like 4 to a boat. thats like um 33 boats? in the river didn't seem that much in the P0A.

As for number and JKR...i doubt JKR is very good with numbers though her books are fantastic. I made a similar post about bellatrix age which to me doesn't make sense.
I mean in the great hall that she perceives each house has its own table while the teachers sit at the front. if it is true 800+ students then 200/table and 100/side
thats alot of people on one side of a table even though its named "Great Hall"....and thats a long walk for moody in the GoF(which didn't seem like it). I can see maybe at most 75 but around 50 meaning somewhere between 400-600 students.

And being in a school year of 100 students you do get to know(maybe not well) quite alot of students. And especially of HP stature.

And the person who mentioned about HP year lacking some students...thats an intriguing idea...because families were killed off and alot of them would have been around harry's age...thx.

I know for sure she says it somewhere in the books, how many there are in one class or something, and it was like 250 students for the entire school if you multiplied the number for every year. Ill try to look it up.
Im not sure about this number, I only remember because my sister was upset cuz there were so little student in Hogwarts.

From the SS/PS sorting scene:

Gryffindor-
Brown, Lavender
Granger, Hermione
Finnigan, Seamus
Longbottom, Neville
Potter, Harry
Thomas, Dean
Weasely, Ron

3 and 5

Ravenclaw-
Boot, Terry
Brocklehurst, Mandy
Turpin, Lisa

1 and 2

Hufflepuff-
Abbot, Hannah
Bones, Susan
Finch-Fletchley, Justin

2 and 1

Slytherin-
Bulstrode, Millicent
Malfoy, Draco
Crabbe
Goyle
Zabini, Blaise

Either 1 and 4 or 2 and 3

Unspecified-
MacDougal, Morag
Moon
Nott
Parkinson
Patil
Patil
Perks, Sally-Anne

From there we know there's a Patil twin each in Gryff. and Rav., and that Parkinson and Nott are in Slytherin. That leaves MacDougal, Morag, Perks, Sally-Anne, and Moon.

We also know that some characters are missing, such as Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff and Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner from Ravenclaw.

So far:

Gryff- 3 gals, 5 guys
Rav- 3 gals, 3 guys
Huff- 2 gals, 2 guys
Slyth- 3 gals and 4 guys, or 2 girls and 5 guys

3 unknowns.

Who am I missing?

ernie macmillan...from hufflepuff(the prefect)

Yeah, I got Ernie... hmm, are there any classroom scenes anyone can think of with other students mentioned or hinted at??? *racks brain* I can't seem to come up with any.

Tragically, Hogwarts Library is down, but they used to have a screen shot of JKR's notebook from when she showed it in an interview. They had a definite number on how many students are in Harry's year (the total of all four houses combined) and they had most of the students placed in houses and whatnot. I really wish that was still up, or that I had been smart enough to make a copy of it, because I don't remember off the top of my head what the numbers where.

I think there were 41 students in Harry's year. And I think that if you took those numbers as well as the numbers from the Lexicon (that hypothesize that the maximum number of Gryffindors + Hufflepuffs = 20 and the maximum number of Slytherins + Gryffindors = 20 on the basis of cauldrons and earmuffs and such laid out for class) it ends up that there are several different combinations you can have, with a range for each house between 8-12 members (the range is actually smaller for some of the houses, but I don't remember which). It seems to work out best if Gryffindor, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff each have ten, but they don't necessarily have to. I'm also pretty sure that there had to be at least one additional Gryffindor in Harry's year that we've never heard of.

But, anyway, as has already been said, in order to have 1000+ students, Harry's year would have to be really excpetionally small. That's possible, but I tend to think that there's been a slip-up in the numbers. JKR wants the school to have more than a thousand students, but the details lend themselves to a much smaller number. Hogwarts seems to have only the subjects that we're aware of, and we know the profs that teach those. It's never indicated that there are a whole bunch of people at the staff table that Harry doesn't really recognize... It just seems to me like although she pictures the school as being bigger, she didn't account for what that would mean when she wrote it, because she was mostly concerned with what was going on with Harry's year.

I think there the number of students is closer to 280 than 1000. (JKR admitted she wasn't very good with "maths" and she might have mentioned the "1000" figure without really thinking about it.)

The joint classes with other Houses are a clue. In Book 1, when Gryffindor and Slytherin have there first class in broom flying, there are twenty brooms laid out on the ground and in the first Potions class there are twenty caldrons — and since each student got one, there could not be more than twenty students there. (If there are other classes of more first year Gryffindors and Slytherins who we haven't met, the teaching load for the teachers for be impossible.) In Book 2, in Herbology, there are twenty pairs of ear muffs — and each student had to have a pair, so there couldn't have been more than twenty Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. That also means that Hufflepuff doesn't have a huge number of students compared to the other Houses.

But I don't think there has to be a rigid "5 boys / 5 girls" quota for each House each year. That doesn't sound like the sort of thing JKR would do — odd quirky numbers are more her style. Also when names are written down when the babies are born in the book that admits them to Hogwarts, it would require magic to come out with exactly 5 boys and 5 girls for each House each year. That would mean some magical kids would not be admitted. ("There's a really good girl for Ravenclaw who has just been born in November in Cornwall! Oh, too bad — we filled our quota of Ravenclaws in August. So you don't get to go to Hogwarts.") And what about the muggle kids — when do they show their magical ability and get the attention of the Ministry? Wouldn't they mess up any quotas?

And there would not be anything for the Sorting Hat really to do since the House of each student would have been determined when they were born, not by the Hat. Or there would be a quota problem again ("I'd like to put you in Gryffindor, but they already have there 5 boys").

The size of the dorm rooms could be adjusted to fit the number of students. Like the Weasleys' car being bigger on the inside than the outside, and the tents at the World Cup too, and the Room of Requirement being adjustable, so too the dorm rooms could be magically adjusted.

There are at least 1000 students if not more. Just because she doesn't write about every single one of them doesn't mean that they aren't there. If you remember, the number of first years the year Harry got there was like 25-30 at least. So yes there are more students than we ever hear about. For example, what about Cho's friend Marrietta? She's been there just as long and she wasn't ever mentioned until the 5th book. And Luna, I think she's probably been there too, but she wasn't brought into the mix either until her character became relevant to the story.

Peeves32 i totally agree, i always thought that hogwarts wasn't a crowded school (due to how large the castle was) But I knew that there were other kids besides the ones mentioned. Perhaps we'll be introduced to other students in the future.

Where is Hogwarts Library, or wherever the picture of her notebook is? I would like to see it.

In the fanfics I've got in Flourish and Blotts, I explain the discrepancy between JKR's figure of 1000 and the apparent smallness of Harry's class by saying that around the time of the first war, many young couples had stopped having children due to the fear and uncertaintly of the times. Then, of course, as happens after most every major war, there would be a baby boom, which began reaching Hogwarts around Harry's third year. Okay, nothing in canon to support that scenario, but at least it resolves the figures.

That's one explanation, of course, though I think it's a stretch to say that over 70% of the population was diminished because of the killings and the fact that war isn't a time to bring a child into the world. You can explain it that way, of course, but I prefer a little artistic leeway here: JKR couldn't present 1000 students, it would be simply too much information, and we could never get close relations with fellow students (for example, the Seamus sideplot in OotP wouldn't be present as much with 35 Gryffindors, because there would be so many surrounding people).

There wasn't any previous war, Voldemort got stopped when he went to the Potter's house to kill James and Harry. I hardly think that qualifies as a war.

Well, considering that the last chapter in OotP was called "The Second War," that Firenze said that we are between two "wars," and on and on, I think we can say it was a war.

I see your point, I just always considered that the term "war" implied a much larger scale of events than what has happened in the story.

All of the teachers that I can think of are McGonagal, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, Hagrid/Grubbly Plank, Sinistra, Trelawney/Firanze, Binns, DADA (different every year), Victor (Arithmancy),Ancient Runes teacher (I don't know who) and the Muggle Studies teacher (I don't know who).

That's all I can think of but if there are 7 years at Hogwarts, that means that there are about 1.7 teachers per year and that doesn't work out.

Maybe I have forgoten some, but they will still be short of 1 teacher for each class of 35 students.

Maybe the teachers use time turners... :eyebrows: :p

OK, OK I'm officially obsessing about this issue, but I found another little clue that suggests the smaller number of near 300 students.

I've started rereading POA in anticipation of the movie, and I noticed that on the night of the sorting, Harry and Hermione are ushered into a brief meeting by McGonagall to talk about Harry's health and then Hermione alone to get her time-turner while Harry waited briefly outside.

Well, those meetings couldn't have taken more than 10 or 15 minutes total (from the book, they seem to be much shorter than that). And in that period, all the other students entered the hall, were seated, and the entire sorting ceremony took place. If there are 1000 students, each class has to have about 100 to 150 members, and that means the Sorting Hat would have to go through about 10 to 15 first-years a minute. Very unlikely.

Possibly - but you really don't know how long the meeting takes, especially the part where Harry leaves the room. And furthermore, that was simply a plot techinique to get out of having to do a sorting, IMO. And really, I don't understand why it matters - to me, JKR wants there to be a 1000 student school, but simply cannot create 1000 different characters; it wouldn't be feasible. So she presents the number of characters that would make 280 students, while letting the rest slip into the backgorund.

There wasn't any previous war, Voldemort got stopped when he went to the Potter's house to kill James and Harry. I hardly think that qualifies as a war.

But before that, there were mass killings, battles with Death Eaters, suspicion all over the place...I call that a war.

Possibly - but you really don't know how long the meeting takes, especially the part where Harry leaves the room. And furthermore, that was simply a plot techinique to get out of having to do a sorting, IMO. And really, I don't understand why it matters - to me, JKR wants there to be a 1000 student school, but simply cannot create 1000 different characters; it wouldn't be feasible. So she presents the number of characters that would make 280 students, while letting the rest slip into the backgorund.

Of course, JKR couldn't give voice to all the students without wasting time and messing up the books -- but that's true even if there are only 280 students. According to her recent interview, there are two more Gryffindor girls in Harry's class that we haven't heard from -- but that still only makes 10 students in Harry's class.

I know I should just stop thinking about it. But it just that that 20 brooms/ear muffs/ cauldrons thing from the books means that only about 10 students per house in Harry's class.

I should just accept that maybe Harry's class is freakishly small and the rest of the years make up the 1,000 students.

You can't just assume that because there are 5 (male)gryffindors in Harry's year each house has 5 (in that year).
It is probably a small number because people don't usually want children in the middle of a war.

You have to consider that JKR is writing these stories from Harry's point of view. Everyone who's ever been in high school knows that, in your own point of view, there are your friends and aquaintences, your teachers, and all other people are just extras who have no particular importance in the plot that is your life. Therefore, they're usually not worth mentioning.

There are probably far more teachers than just the ones that teach Harry, and far more students than just the ones Harry knows and talks about. Not to mention that "1,000 students" is probably an approximation. Class numbers should rise and drop every year just like they do in real life, so 1,000 students probably means appx. 800-1,200 in any given year.

For a little math...we know about 12 teachers so far (that I can think of), not including Dumbledore, of course. However, we already know there are many more classes than the ones Harry takes- they were on his electives sheet. So let's say there are really three quarters more teachers than we know about, which I think is fairly realistic, making 36. Considering what Boris said about having 20 students to a class, that gives us 720 students who can be reasonably spread around to all the different teachers in any given period of the day. Add in the fact that this generation is probably smaller than previous generations due to potentional parents that died in the war, and this seems like a reasonable number to have for a school of appx. 1,000 children.

Just to round off my logic, let's consider accomodation as well. If we have about 720 kids, that makes 180 kids in each house, give or take a few. Someone else mentioned that in order for this to work, you'd need about a hundred kids on each side of each table in the great hall, but I don't find this unreasonable. They're supposed to be very long tables in a great big hall, and if you can fit a few hundred kids in a high school cafeteria, I don't see any problem with it.

The only drawback to this theory is the dorms. If you about 100 boys and 100 girls in every house, where do they all sleep? I'll just use the cop-out excuse- it's a magical school! :D

Of course, taking everything quite literally from what is mentioned in the books, (only 12 teachers total, 20 students per class), it's also possible that there are only 240 kids at Hogwarts, as has been mentioned. Then there'd only be 60 kids to a house, 30 boys and 30 girls, which would be much easier to accomodate.

I don't find it impossible to have 1000 students. It's a big castle, I suppose everyone will fit.

We did't hear of Trelawney or Sinistra until Harry's year had to go to their classes so chances are there are a lot of other students and teachers in the school we haven't heard about.

So many people seem to think that there are the same number of students per house per year. You can't really work anything realistic based on that, as there must be differing numbers - there simply won't be five girls and five boys in each house per year, as each is Sorted according to their personality traits (bravery, cleverness, ambition etc). You're not telling me that there's going to be exactly ten brave people, ten clever people, ten ambitious people and ten others - far more likely that, say, Hufflepuff has more students than any other House, Ravenclaw has quite a lot, and Gryffindor has a few, so does Slytherin. The balance of this would also change each year, so maybe 12 Gryffindors one year, the next year maybe only five, the year after maybe 20. Hufflepuff has 20 one year, 10 the next and so on and so forth.

I still think there could be 1000 students, but I find it hard to believe there's two more Gryffindor girls in Harry's year - they'd have to be mentioned at least once or twice, it's not as if they're in another year or house. Since the story is from Harry's point of view, you'd expect him to at least notice the other girls in his year, even if it's only a passing reference to establish their presence.

All of the teachers that I can think of are McGonagal, Snape, Flitwick, Sprout, Hagrid/Grubbly Plank, Sinistra, Trelawney/Firanze, Binns, DADA (different every year), Victor (Arithmancy),Ancient Runes teacher (I don't know who) and the Muggle Studies teacher (I don't know who).

That's all I can think of but if there are 7 years at Hogwarts, that means that there are about 1.7 teachers per year and that doesn't work out.

Maybe I have forgoten some, but they will still be short of 1 teacher for each class of 35 students.


I can think of 13 teachers off the top of my head;

McGonagall
Snape
Trelawney
Binns
Sprout
Hooch
Flitwick
Hagrid
Vector
Sinistra
DADA teacher
Muggle Studies teacher
Ancient Runes teacher

Can anyone think of any more we've heard mention of in the books? There must be some!

Well, don't know if this is worth anything or not, but in the PoA set report on The Leaky Cauldron, it says that the Great Hall (for movie puposes) can accomodate 450 children. I've always had a hard time believing Hogwarts had 1000+ students. But at the same time I went to a parochial school as a child (60 students per grade, 8 grades = 480) and that felt very small to me. Can't imagine what a school with only 280 students would be like...........

I was sort of picturing a 1000-person school where all the students in given year in a given house went to classes together a bit like my experience in university. There were about a hundred and ten students in my year in my department (after first year, when most of my classes topped five hundred people), and much of the time we were all in classes together. I didn't know all of them by name, let alone interact with them all on a regular basis (not even at the 'subplot' level.)

My experience of being in a clubroom containing about a hundred people at any given moment is actually a bit like reading some of the common room scenes - I heard and noticed the people I knew well, everyone else was just...well...scenery. As for professors...If I didn't take a class from them, they were just faces. Not worth talking about.

If a teacher can handle a class of indefinite size (as big as necessary, in other words), there's no reason you couldn't have seventy people in a potions class. My chem labs were that size. And the Hogwarts students seem much better behaved in class than the average group of Canadian eleven-year-olds. Twenty eight to thirty-five students was the norm in a class when I was in Junior High (starting around thirteen years old)

I can't get around the issue of there being twenty cauldrons, broomsticks, etc. in the classes, though I'll buy the idea that Harry's year is small (for whatever reason), at least in Gryffindor and Slytherin. If JKR says there's 1000, I'll believe her.

It's JKR's books and If she says there are 1000 students that there ARE 1000 students, nothing less, nothing more, even though there are some weird book contradictions. Maybe we aren't calculating properly.

I doubt all students catch the Hogwarts Express. What about the students who live in Scotland? It is a waste of time travelling to London to catch the train when they are right near the castle. So that would mean less train carriages, and less threstral carriages.

There may be more students in Harry's year that we may not know of, and don't get a mention. You never know there may be more dorm rooms in Harry's year in Gryffindor tower.

There may be more students in Harry's year that we may not know of, and don't get a mention. You never know there may be more dorm rooms in Harry's year in Gryffindor tower.
I did just notice when reading OOTp, in the first class with Umbridge, Harry refers to 30 eyes looking at him. As I recall there are only the griffindors in the DADA class. So 30 students X 4 houses X 7 years = 840 students. Assuming that there are flucuations in students per year( or not), 1000 would be a good estimate for number of students. We do know that here are at least two students not named in Harry's year between that last interview and POA.

Hey harp...did he say 30 eyes or 30 sets of eyes? 'Cause 30 eyes would only be 15 people...not 30. Just curious about the language.

" 30 eagerly listening classmates" was whatthe book said. Added a bit of flavor to my post there. So it is 30 people...

lol...Okay. I didn't feel like pulling the book out.

This issue bothers me more than any other. Common rooms would have to be huge, there aren't enough teachers, dormitories, etc. I hope she fills us in one day because I think about it way too much.

I don't have the books here with me, but I think Harry missed a few sorting ceremonies and we don't know how many students entered the school in that years!

I think we can use the final exams to see how many students are in harry's year...
ho, I wish I had the books here! :(

p.s: sory for my english!

OotP - Chapter Twenty Eight

"He was standing in the middle of the Great Hall, but the four house tables were gone. Instead, there were more than a hundred smaller tables, all facing the same way, at each of which sat a student, head bent low, scribbling on a roll of parchment. The only sound was the scratching of quills and the occasional rustle as somebody adjusted their parchment. It was clearly exam time."

well I think now we know that there are more than a hundred students per year, or at least in Harry's year!

p.s: I don't know if this is the exact text, because I picked it from an alternative source...

I think we just have to conclude that JKR is not very good at "maths" as she said in the March interview. When she started writing, she just didn't divide 1000 by 7 and then by 4 to determine how many students should have been in Harry's Gryffindor class. The first books have 20 brooms and 20 cauldrons in classes with Gryffindor and Slytherin -- so unless more than one person was supposed to fly on a broom, there cannot be more than 20 first-years in those two houses. And his dorm room has his year on it, not for example "First Year, Section 1." So in the first books we were led to believe there were only about 10 students in his class in Gryffindor. Now that people have pointed out the problem to her, maybe she is changing the numbers like with Umbridge's class.

well think about it--you're only looking at one house for the most part...who's to say that in the others, maybe their domitory rooms are bigger--just because Harry's classmates only have say, 5 to a room, doesn't mean all the other houses are like that. Besides, a castle HAS to have thousands of people in it, otherwise it's just boring :P

" 30 eagerly listening classmates" was whatthe book said. Added a bit of flavor to my post there. So it is 30 people...

I can't find that in my copy. Can you tell me where in the lesson it mentions the thirty people?

And isn't that a bit odd, considering Lupin's Boggart class? Only 8 people (9 including Lupin) faced the Boggart, so why would Harry feel especially singled out when 22 other people in the class didn't face the Boggart either? Obviously he would notice Lupin didn't let him face the Boggart, but nor did he let the other 21, one of which was Hermione.

And the quote from Chapter 28 about 100 desks doesn't tell us anything about Harry's year (or any year currently at Hogwarts). It just tells us that there were 100 people in Harry's parents' year, since it was their exam, not Harry's. Harry's year could still have any number in.

Something just hit me...just because Gryffindor and Slytherin has a class together, does that necessary mean that ALL of the students from Gryffindor/Slytherin in that year are present?
I know this may sound weird, but I'll try to explain. When I went to high school, we were 20 students in my class (call it A to make it simple). Our parallell classes (B, C) had roughly the same number of students. We were never more than 30 students in one classroom, because the rooms were small. Still, I had classes together with both B and C students! The reason: we were divided, by choice or by random selection, so that some students from f,ex. class A and B would have, say chemistry on Mondays, while the rest of the students (in both A and B) would have chemistry on Tuesdays.
I honestly don't know how they do in England, but in Sweden this seems to be quite common. The reasons are sometimes to put students who are on the same "level" together, but sometimes I think they did it just to break up the classes, "for a change".
If you think of it this way, it is entirely possible that they were only 20 students in the flying lessons, because the rest of the Gryffindor and Slytherins would have the class at a different time.

The obvious argument against this theory is that Hermione, Harry, Ron, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle always seem to be in the same class, which would exclude a random selection. Still, it is not impossible, as they could have chosen their own group.
Or ponder f.ex. that there are not one, but two groups or classes of Gryffindors in Harry's year, with about 10 students in each. That way, the students would always stay the same, and naturally, we would not hear much of the students in the other group, because Harry would not meet them other than in the common room or at breakfast. Farfetched, perhaps, but entirely possible. It would make sense to "force" the students to meet students from other houses, I think, since otherwise they would probably never meet.

I simply think that Hogwarts, as the only Wizarding school in England, taking students from Ireland too, HAS to have more students than 280!

I'm not sure that Harry's dorm has more than 5 boys. The room is only labeled with their year, and I think described as having 5 beds. How could there be more boys with out there being another dorm room for them, or at least more beds?

I honestly think it's just another math mistake.

I can't find that in my copy. Can you tell me where in the lesson it mentions the thirty people?.
That refrence was in the very first lesson with Umbrige the class was looking at Harry as he began his tirade....Sorry i dont have the page number right now.

And isn't that a bit odd, considering Lupin's Boggart class? Only 8 people (9 including Lupin) faced the Boggart, so why would Harry feel especially singled out when 22 other people in the class didn't face the Boggart either? Obviously he would notice Lupin didn't let him face the Boggart, but nor did he let the other 21, one of which was Hermione.

Not really, Lupin stepped in to prevent Harry specifically from taking on the bogart. So Harry knew that Lupin did not want Harry to take it on. That is different than Lupin not giving hHarry the chance at all among several others.

We know that there are only 5 beds in Harrys room, but who says that there are no other rooms for boys in Harry's year? No one has not confirmed or denied it.

Now there is definately some math error, just some inconsistent support for the different suggestions....

I honestly think it's just another math mistake.
I agree. JKR could always explain it all away, if asked, by saying that there are a lot of students in the other years and houses, but I don't think she meant it to be like that from the start.

We know that there are only 5 beds in Harrys room, but who says that there are no other rooms for boys in Harry's year? No one has not confirmed or denied it.
Of course that's possible, but as far as I can remember we've only ever heard of five Gryffindor boys in Harry's year (Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean), and even if I agree that we don't have to have heard about everyone in the other houses, I think that Harry should at least have noticed all the Gryffindor boys in his house at least once. Or that's my opinion. :)

This issue bothers me more than any other. Common rooms would have to be huge, there aren't enough teachers, dormitories, etc. I hope she fills us in one day because I think about it way too much.

i've always thaught that there might be more teachers for transfiguration,charms etc. for years 6 & 7. But i dunno

lol just last nite i read in an interview that jkr said there were over 1000 students, i'm going to look for that right now....

How many students attend Hogwarts, and how many students per year per house?
There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts.

hehe that was from a scholastic online chat from oct 6, 2000, i found it at mugglenet. so! but i dunno if jkr changed her mind or something since then

The more I think about it the more I think JKR just hasn't put much thought into how many students are at Hogwarts. I read that interview a few days ago funnyhoney and I think she just pulled a number out of the air. She was probably thinking that there are a lot of students there as it's a large boarding school, so she said about a thousand. She only focuses on a few people from every house, so there wouldn't really be a reason for her to come up with a solid number of how many students are at Hogwarts...she just knows it's a large school. So, I think for all practical purposes, there are more than 280 students...but I doubt that there are 1000. I'm betting closer to 500...we just haven't seen (or even heard a hint of) crowds large enough to justify 1000 students.

lol i was thinking about 800, if 200 for slytherin, then 200 for each house maybe?

Okay, I'm new here and I'm sorry to admit that I'm to lazy to read through all the many posts, so bear with me if all this has been said before, as I'm sure it has....
Okay....
I have always felt it was rather odd that there were only five boys in the Gryffindor Year that Harry is in, especially as it has always been stated that there was hundreds of students..... Moreover, how could classes of only Gryffindors from Harry's year be of twenty or so, if there were also only five girls. I have finally come to the decision, that the number of students in each house (an the ordering of girls and boys) is extremely varying from year to year, after all the students are new every year, you cannot know whether there will be ten or one Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff or Slytherin etc.....
I guess the dorms will have got the same charm that is used in the cars and in the tents, so that it doesn't matter if there are nine or hundred and seven students is to sleep there......

I've always had a hard time swallowing that there were 1000 students at Hogwarts. I know that's what JKR has said, I just don't see proof in the books to back it up. :huh:

That being said, I don't think one can precisely pinpoint how many students there are at Hogwarts at any given time. Why? Because I find it highly unlikely that every year there are exactly five girls and boys sorted into each house. Students houses are decided by the Sorting Hat during the Sorting Ceremony, so how could it always put 10 students to a house and really put them in the house best suited to them? There's bound to be some years that have more students than others as well as the numbers sorted into each house varying by year.

I'm sure the number of students at Hogwarts is variable -- the number of witches and wizards born will obviously differ from year-to-year. That being said, this will obviously affect the number of students at Hogwarts. It's quite possible that student numbers can fluctuate from several hundred to near a thousand, depending on the intake for a particular year. As SiriuslyBria said, it's highly unlikely that exactly five boys and five girls are sorted every year into each of the four houses.

If JKR said there's 1000 students at Hogwarts then that's good enough for me. She owns the place, after all. ;)

That being said, I don't think one can precisely pinpoint how many students there are at Hogwarts at any given time. Why? Because I find it highly unlikely that every year there are exactly five girls and boys sorted into each house. Students houses are decided by the Sorting Hat during the Sorting Ceremony, so how could it always put 10 students to a house and really put them in the house best suited to them? There's bound to be some years that have more students than others as well as the numbers sorted into each house varying by year.

I totally agree. What if there were 17 cunning little buggers that all would have made great Slytherins in one year? Would they only take the "top ten"? What would happen to the other 7? All we know is that there's 5 Gryffindor boys in Harry's year, and 3 (maybe more) Gryffindor girls (Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati). There are at least 3 Gryffindor girls in Ginny's year (Ginny, plus the two girls that slide down the slide after Ron tries to get into the girls' dorm), and at least 3 Gryffindor boys in Fred & George's year (them and Lee Jordan). There are at least three Slytherin boys in Harry's year (Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle), at least two Hufflepuff girls in Harry's year (Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones) ... I could go on and on, but my point is that it seems to me that it's completely arbitrary! I hope that it isn't 5 set for each gender-per-year-per-house, since that would minimize the importance of the Sorting Hat ... it wouldn't truly sort based on what it saw within the person, but on what it saw within the person that matched the categories it had left!

The issue never really bothered me...but of course now I'm noticing little things left and right that annoy me. :upset: I know we never know and it IS JKR's world, but still. Why did JKR make a point of showing, I think it's 25 students getting sorted out of Harry's year? To show a number that high, when you know she can't really go in depth with 25 characters, it's easy for someone to assume that that's pretty much the number of students in Harry's year. I'm reading CoS again, and I was reading the Polyjuice Potion chapter. It says that the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years are in one of the largest dungeons having class. I think the line reads '20 cauldrons were steaming' or something to that effect. Ugh...if they're having classes with just 20 students in a required course, how the heck do those professors teach 1000 students in a week? It's not like they have more than one professor per subject. Even if Harry's is the smallest class...even if they had a few classes with 50 students in it, that's one professor teaching 19+ classes a week. So I stick by my earlier statement..JKR never really thought it through and pulled 1000 out of the air. I do realize that the odds of them having the same number of students each year is silly...so the 280 thing is easily debatable. But 1000? With only 4 teachers covering the required courses? I'm willing to go on a little faith here...but...? Anyway, just wanted to keep the debate going.:D

To me it seems likely that there are around 1000 students in Hogwarts.

1) As someone said before, people probably didn't want to have children when Voldemort was at the height of his power. This is around Harry's age.

2) As far as teachers it seems possible that there can be more than one teacher per subject. Think about it, there would be the head of the subject, like Snape or Flitwick, then teachers under them. These would teach those students who did aren't in the NEWT classes, opening more time for the teachers.

3) Also it seems that Gryffindor probably has the smallest amount of students. Think about it, Slytherin takes the pure bloods and others who will do anything to get ahead, that would include a lot of people. Ravenclaw takes all the studious people, which still would be a lot of people. Gryffindor stands for bravery. As we saw in OoTP, not that many people are really that brave, many were against Umbridge but didn't do anything about her. It doesn't seem that that many people in the wizarding world are really that brave. As far a Hufflepuff, a very noble action, accepts all others.

There are three possibilities:

(1) JKR was just not thinking when she said in an interview that there were 1000 students. She just said what was a good round number. The real number of students is much smaller.

JKR admitted she isn't very good with "maths" and she might have mentioned the "1000" figure without really thinking about it. I doubt if she ever bothered to divide 1000 by 7 and then that number by 4 to determine how many students should be in each House in each class.

Also in the March interview, when she was asked about the "two missing Gryffindor girls" she said she couldn't remember their names right then. If there were a lot more Gryffindors in Harry's class, she would have mentioned it that rather then say that she couldn't remember the names of the other two. This seems to commit her to there being only 10 Gryffindors in Harry's class.

(2) There are 1000 students, but Harry's class is just freakishly small.

The joint classes with other Houses are a clue. In Book 1, when Gryffindor and Slytherin have there first class in broom flying, there are twenty brooms laid out on the ground — and since each student got one, there could not be more than 20 students there. In Book 2, in Herbology, there are about 20 pairs of ear muffs — and each student had to have a pair, so there couldn't have been more than about 20 Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. That also means that Hufflepuff doesn't have a huge number of students compared to the other Houses. In Potions class, there are 20 caldrons and each student had one (since Harry threw a firecracker into Grabbe's).

There are no indications in any of the books of other sections of each class who we just haven't met — e.g., that there are two or three other sections of Harry's Gryffindor class that each have Potions separately with other sections of Slytherin that Malfoy isn't in. Harry's Gryffindor dorm room just has his year on it, not, e.g., "First Years — Section 1." The teaching load for the teachers is already terrible, and if there are other sections, the teaching load would be multiplied by two or three or four for those courses that have classes of only 20 students. (And there is no mention of other Charms or Transfiguration or Potion or History or Herbology teachers — Harry would certainly have mentioned another Potions teacher if there was one, wishing he had him or her instead of Snape.)

But I don't think there has to be a rigid "5 boys / 5 girls" quota for each House each year. That doesn't sound like the sort of thing JKR would do — odd quirky numbers are more her style. Also when names are written down when the babies are born in the book that admits them to Hogwarts, it would require magic to come out with exactly 5 boys and 5 girls for each House each year. That would mean some magical kids would not be admitted. ("There's a really good girl for Ravenclaw who has just been born in November in Cornwall! Oh, too bad — we filled our quota of Ravenclaws in August. So you don't get to go to Hogwarts.") And what about the muggle kids — when do they show their magical ability and get the attention of the Ministry? Wouldn't they mess up any quotas? And there would not be anything for the Sorting Hat really to do since the House of each student would have been determined when they were born, not by the Hat. Or there would be a quota problem again ("I'd like to put you in Gryffindor, but they already have their 5 boys").

The size of the dorm rooms could be adjusted to fit the number of students. Like the Weasleys' car being bigger on the inside than the outside, and the tents at the World Cup too, and the Room of Requirement being adjustable, so too the dorm rooms could be magically adjusted.

(3) There are 1000 students any JKR just hasn't mentioned most of them because it would needlessly muck up the story.

If the Sorting Hat has to sort 120 to 150 students each year, the ceremony is going to take a really long time. If each student takes an average of only half a minute to have their name called, go to the chair, pick up the hat, put it on, have the Sort Hat do whatever it does, take off the hat, put it down, and leave, then the ceremony would take two hours. But the Sorting Hat ceremony in POA could not have taken very long — Harry and Hermione missed the whole thing after a short meeting with McGonagall. (There is no indication that the Hermione's meeting took over an hour — e.g., Harry does say he got tired of waiting or complained afterwards.)

I saw an episode of "Liberty Kids" a while ago — a cartoon show in USA about the American Revolution. If you believe that show, George Washington only had about two dozen soldiers at Valley Forge. I guess the animators didn't want to bother drawing thousands of soldiers. And JKR might be the same: she doesn't want to clutter up the story by mentioning every name in the Sorting Hat ceremony or having to give each student some lines by having Harry interact with every student in his class. Of course, it would be awkward to try to introduce a "new" member of Harry's Gryffindor class — one she hasn't mentioned yet — at this late date.

I'm inclined to the first theory — that there are closer to 280 students than 1,000. But there are things indicating a larger number (e.g., 30 pairs of eyes in Umbridge's DADA class looking at Harry). I think we just have to conclude that JKR is not very good with "maths" and she didn't put a whole lot of thought in making the numbers come out the way she wants.

Where is Hogwarts Library, or wherever the picture of her notebook is? I would like to see it.

It was down when I first posted, which is why I didn't give the link. The capture, and a breakdown of the stats it displays is located here:

Hogwarts Library (http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/HarrysYear.html).

At the same site, but located here (http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/Student_Number.html) , is a neat little article about the whole problem with the number of students, that I remember thinking was kind of interesting to read.

This issue bothers me more than any other. Common rooms would have to be huge, there aren't enough teachers, dormitories, etc. I hope she fills us in one day because I think about it way too much.

Well in a place where magic resides, things can look small but be magically expanded within. We have seen this with cars and tents so why wouldn't a Common Room? That is if Hogwarts isn't that big enough already.

Teachers ... yep that is a tricky one, I always imagined that may there are Time turners involved when It came to teaching, but that is just me.

At the same site, but located here (http://www.hogwarts-library.net/reference/Student_Number.html) , is a neat little article about the whole problem with the number of students, that I remember thinking was kind of interesting to read.

That article was great and very exhaustive...and proved my theory wrong. :p Anyway, it seems like we really have to accept that the numbers don't match up.

I read that article at Hogwarts Library, and I think we have to agree with their conclusion that in JKR's world 4 times 7 times 10 equals "about a thousand." The numbers given in the books are not consistent and cannot be reconciled with any one number. Hermione at the end of PS/SS says that most great wizards do not have an ounce of logic, and I'm afraid that the same has to be said of JKR and her "maths."

I read that article at Hogwarts Library, and I think we have to agree with their conclusion that in JKR's world 4 times 7 times 10 equals "about a thousand." The numbers given in the books are not consistent and cannot be reconciled with any one number. Hermione at the end of PS/SS says that most great wizards do not have an ounce of logic, and I'm afraid that the same has to be said of JKR and her "maths."
Well JKR has stated that "maths" is not her best subject.

I'm sorry if this has been stated before but if there were only 10 students per house per year there should have been 39 other students at Harry's sorting ceremony and at least in the film there were a lot more children around! I can't remember what the book says about this but I'll reread it!

This has been bothering me for awhile. There are seemingly only 8 Gryffindors in Harry's year, which doesn't seem likely with the common room always full. That would make the classes extremely small, quite ridiculous. However, if there are more students, how come they're never even mentioned? In the PoA movie it bothered me to see so many characters I had no names for (I also think there was a chubbier black boy who had a line near the end...who was he?). It seems stressed that there are a lot of students, but it seems unlikely that Harry would simply not acknowledge the other in his house/year. I do think that Hufflepuff has more students simply because that house seems to have the loosest qualifications for acceptance: "Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest," (OotP 205 American version) rather than needing to be a wonderful student, brave, or cunning. from her website, it seems that JKR has a lot of notes on characters and little tidbits of information on various characters. My thoughts are that there are other characters present, we just never hear about them. But WHY?

My school has more than one class for each grade so why not Harry's. If there a 250 kids per house 7 years thats aprox. 35 kids in each year (per house) 35 kids in a class is not unlikely. But if you put all 4 houses together (which they do in the book) thats 140 kids in each year . So if first years have a class of 35 (mixed houses) ex. Snape could teach 4 classes one after another and complete the entire first years. Or they could have him on a different day. It could be 40 first years one day (followed by other year classes) then the nexed day another batch of kids.

The problem is when you read the book you dont get the impression that there are 140 kids being asigned to a house. But that doesnt mean that there not there.

Some people were saying there wasnt enough teachers. I think there are enough. But I also believe that there are classes we dont know about. If Hermione never took Ancient Ruins do you think we would know the class existed. And maybe 6th and 7th years have other classes not available in 1-5

I think it varys from year to year depending on how meny people go to hogwarts. We olny find out that there are 5 boys in harrys year we never find out how meny girls there are in his year. we never really find out how meny are in each year. its a bit silly to say that they only let 40 kidds in because one houes may get more than the others and one might not get any depending on what the kidds are like!! so i think that there are from 10 to about 20 kidds per house per year, but thats just me!

Just because we do not hear about the other students does not mean that they do not exist. Introducing too many characters would only make things complicated and add nothing to the story ...

The 10 students per house / per year thing does not make sense as the sorting hat decides where the students go.

Also in Ootp harry is yelling at one of his freinds in the dorm(i forgot who) and tells him that if he really cant live with harry he should ask McGonallgal to change his dorm room. This implies there are more than five or six kids a year. I wrote this because of previous posts saying there was only one room per year.

There could be thousands of students. If they adopted the same system as any other school in the UK. If they had many different sets taking the same classes at different times then it would work. The sets seemed to be organised by house with some classes having two different sets. In my old school we had 7 years and 1000 students using that method. We had 6 houses and 30(ish) students to a house per year. YOu've just got to remember that there are around 40 teaching hours a week and lessons cant really last longer than about 2 hours I would say. That would give plenty of time to get everyone taught the same studf

Also in Ootp harry is yelling at one of his freinds in the dorm(i forgot who) and tells him that if he really cant live with harry he should ask McGonallgal to change his dorm room. This implies there are more than five or six kids a year. I wrote this because of previous posts saying there was only one room per year.

wasn't that seamus?

wasn't that seamus?
could be I dont have the book on hand so I wasnt completely sure. But he did say that he could trade dorms which implied more than 1 room for each year.

JKR said in this interview (http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/cookarama/scholintoct00.html):

Q: How many students attend Hogwarts, and how many students per year per house?

A: There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts.

Someone said something about there only being about 7 teachers, for one thing we only know about the teachers harry has had and two, in the first two movies (maybe the third, I haven't seen it) there are quite a few teachers you see that we've never heard of. All this combines to say, there are many teachers we have never heard of so class sizes would not be too big for the idea of over 1000 students.

Judging by the size of a castle, 1,000 students is unlikely. The castle houses classrooms, offices, kitchens, large bathrooms, a secret pool, dorms, common rooms, the greenhouse, the owlery, halls, the third floor, and the great hall. It would be next to impossible to accomidate that many students, unless these rooms were smaller. If you notice though, the rooms are huge. Most castle great halls are five stories tall.

However, that's comparing to real castles. This is an enchanted castle so it can be miles long. Why not? It's the magical world.

I believe that J.K. only mentions people or things that are rellevant to Harry. It would be pointless to mention everybody who got sorted. Besides, we didn't know about Divination class until the third book.

The movie version would probably be about 280 students, but books and movies are different.

From my own perspective, I find it perfectly feasible to have around 1000 students at Hogwarts. Back in the mists of time, when I was a student, my school had around 900-1000 students. I was a boarder at that school although not everybody was. (Surely with Hogsmeade nearby, there must be children living there who are of an age to go to Hogwarts. Why board if they live near by?) We were sorted into years - 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. and classes A,B,C,D etc. up to about J. I only had classes with some students in A & B (boys) and C & D (girls). I had a friend in class J, but I never saw her in school as our timetables were different. So it is reasonable to assume that the year sizes are larger than just the students who are mentioned. Also, JKR has to keep the story moving, it would just become to longwinded and repetitive to mention everybody in the class or school, only those who have a bearing on Harry or the plot deserve a mention. I think there is enough implication that Hogwarts is a big school in the story.

As for Harry's dorm being the only Gryffindor dorm for that year, I find that hard to believe. But, it is the only one that matters to him, it is his space. Other dorm rooms have no bearing on the story and so do not need a mention.

I wasn't much interested in those teachers who had no part in my school life. Some of those mentioned - Snape, McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout are Head of Houses so they would be expected to sit at the staff table. I expect Harry is taught by them so as not to clog up the story with too many characters. New teachers are introduced as necessary.

In regards to the "only 20 earmuffs" or "only 20 cauldrons/broomsticks/whatever", perhaps the younger years are split up into small class sizes so they can get used to Hogwarts. After all, a fair proportion of them are muggles and not used to magic. The rest may have been home-schooled and so are not used to large groups.

If Hogwarts is the only Wizarding School in Britain, it would need to be fairly large, after all a thriving wizarding population needs to be maintained and a small school might indicate a declining population.

I dont know if anyone else has made this point yet, but in the books I don't think that they have all joint classes, so don't you think that it would be weird to just have 10 people in a class? That is why I always thought that when Rowling said that there were 1000 students at Hogwarts that she was right, but I do go to a big high school we have about 25 to 30 people per class, the class of 2004 had like I think 700 people, and I am in a class of about 800 now, but by the time I'm a senior we will probally have about 700 because a lot of people drop out and end up moving and stuff.

There are thirty students in Harry's Fifth Year DADA class, only Gryffindors. So that means that there are thirty Gryffindor students in Harry's Year.

He had hardly talked to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates.
OotP, pg 245/6, Chapter 12.

I've always figured there were about 1000 students at Hogwarts. We are never certain how many magical children are born in a year, and how many are accepted to Hogwarts. Some houses may get more students than others. There were just 5 boys put in Gryffindor in Harry's year, but that doesn't mean more could be placed in Gryffindor the next year. Also, I know that the dormitories always have 5 beds for Harry's room, but come on, this is a MAGICAL school. There can be more beds put in the rooms. The teachers may be able to cast a spell for more beds.

I think its possible that there is 1000 students at Hogwarts. The whole idea of there being only 5 girls and 5 boys in each year of each house bothers me. That makes 40 wizards in each year. But what if there was more than 40 wizards age 11 in England? That's why i think there is more.

There are thirty students in Harry's Fifth Year DADA class, only Gryffindors. So that means that there are thirty Gryffindor students in Harry's Year.


OotP, pg 245/6, Chapter 12.
Excellent. 1000/7=142 (and change) 30*4=120 but if some houses got more students than others, you can quite easily conceive of 140+ students per year. Woohoo! Thanks for the OotP ref.

1000 students in Hogwarts.
250 for each house.
35 per year per house.
140 students per year.

I don't think there can be an equal number of students for each house/year. For example, '250 students per house, 35 students per year for each house' is just not possible. I believe it varies.

The Hogwarts magic quill writes down in McGonagall's book the name of every magical child when he/she is born (so that McGonagall can send them the letter). Even if the magic quill knows what house the child will be sorted into, what if there are 50 potential Gryffindors, 30 potential Hufflepuffs, 40 potential Ravenclaws, and 20 potential Slytherins in this year? Also, what if there are more than 140 magical children born this year? How is Dumbledore going to make them fit (in their dormitories and classes)?

As it was said befor there are 10 people per house in each grade so 4x10=40 (around fourty students per year than) and 40x7=280, so I think that the title is correct only that there might be 278 or something doesn't matter. I do think that if there are 280 students the great hall is a bit large. If I would see like the great hall in movies I think that there would fit like 400 people and from the books the castle and all seem so large for 280 students. I think that it would be nice to live at Hogwarts...

yes, I was thinking about this too.

five students x seven years x two (girls and boys) = 70 students per house x four houses= 280 students. There might be a 20 (so ranging from 260-300 pupils at Hogwarts) person margin of error, but how is there 1000 students????

And who are the other two Gryffindor girls (if any)?

Ahhhh the OOTP reference. Yes, but how are there 30 students? Are there more Gryffindor now sixth year boys that we don't know about???? That would mean there was ten boys we don't know about and twelve boys we don't know about, roughly that is.

It's been said before, Jk probably didn't feel it relevant to the story to mention the names of all those other Gryffindor 5th years. And it makes sense if there is possibly more than one boys/girls dorm per year.

There's no way that the numbers can be completely percise because the Sorting Hat has to choose which House everyone goes to. It's not going to be like "Well, there are already 5 Gryiffindor boys, so I guess you can't be in that house," even if the boy did belong in Gryiffindor. There might very well be only 3 Gryiff. girls in Harry's year.

Probably just a mistake, JKR must find it hard to keep hold of all the facts

u can tell from the movies that there isnt 1000 students. but in POA, the first time they show the bogart scene, there seems to be alot of ppl lined up for just one class. since malfoy attended, that meant they had a class with the slitherins. but in potions with snape, the class is way less occupant. and it seems like theres less chairs. so its inconsistent. this is a long shot, but it kinda tells you how many ppl migt attend one class at a time.

Well
How many of you read Archie comics? For the last 50 + years there are shown about 10-15 characters , where they study in Riverdale Highschool

Why not refer to the pages where it mentions the Sorting? We can find some more unused names there !

Mr HP

And finally HP books are about HP and you dont expect 1000 other studentsmentioned and given important roles there!!

First of all, I'll just say that the movies have nothing to do with the books and cant be relied upon to give us accurate facts. They are based in the directors imaginations and there is no way the budget would stretch enough to build the real size of the castle in the movies. Also Jk cant make up names and stories for every one of the children and teachers in Hogwarts, just the select few who are going to matter.
It is not unusual to not know everyone in the grade, let alone the rest of the school. I remember when I was in year 10 after 4 years in high school, meeting a girl who I thought was new and it turned out she'd been there as long as I had! I thought I knew everyone. Also I only knew about 10 or 15 other people from the other grades because they were family of my friends. This was in a school of about 1000 with only 6 grades. Each grade had between 150 and 180 girls. The juniors, years 7 to 10, were split into 6 to 8 separate classes and the seniors had around 8 electives running at any one time. We had no mixing of classes so we had around 45 teachers.
My view is that there is approximately 240 students in each house making up around 960 at Hogwarts. In the case of Griffindor for example, theres about 30 people in Harrys class, which means that they would only need 3 dormitories of 5 beds in each of the sections for each grade, or about 21 for boys and 21 for girls, which in a place like Hogwarts, wouldnt be hard. The fact that we only know about 13 teachers doesnt mean there arent more just like the unknown students.
As for the size of the Great Hall, which someone mentioned earlier, it isnt hard to put 4 tables that hold 120 students on each side, in a hall. I got the impression when reading the books that the hall is about 120metres long and 30 or 40 metres wide. It isnt that hard to picture something that big, 2 would fit into our local Bunnings Warehouse.
The Great Hall, dormitories and common rooms would be in proportion with the rest of the castle. At the beginning of PS it says there are 142 staircases which, in my mind, makes Hogwarts into a bloody big castle!

In my school there are 2500 students from grades 8-12 in a school half the size of Hogwarts. Its easily feasable to fit 1000 into Hogwarts and accomodate them.

At my school we have 2000 kids, and it's from grades 9-12. I certainly don't know everyone in my grade. I mean, when I look at the yearbook I recognize faces but I don't know their names and personal agendas, etc. I only know upper classmen from band, orchestra, swimming, or a few accelerated course classes like how Harry knows people because of Quidditch and the DA. So I could see how it's possible to have 1000 for Hogwarts. Actually, I think that's kinda small considering it's supposed to be for all of Britain. And also, since true bravery is a bit of a rare trait, (*think of all the people you know and then sort them into houses, you'll probably find very few Gryffindors) I don't think it's really accurate to measure based on that figure alone. There are probably a lot more Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws and Slytherins then Gryffindors I'd imagine.

*note: I'm saying that bravery is their predominant trait in order to be sorted for Gryffindor, not that they can't be brave and be really wise, like Luna in Ravenclaw, for example.

Right i have read some of the posts in here..not all of them so im sorry if i reapeat anyone but...

everyones going on about "at my school..." etc etc are we parhaps forgetting that this is Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it is likely the Wizarding community is smaller than the muggle one.

Maybe its the simple fact that there just arnt as many witches and wizards as there are regular students at your school?

Yay.. ok. I just got back from my room and fetched 10 books. (the enitre Harry Potter Series in two languages)

Yesh. I got them for the sorting in some of them. Perhaps we are not paying close enough attention to that.

ok, in count for Harry's first year, we have, According to the sorting Hat chapter in the Philosopher Stone, plus what we know from the first book, and so forth about Harry's classmates, and in Harry's year.

Hufflepuff, 3, Bones, Susan. Abott, Hannah. and Finch-Fletchley, Justin.
Ravenclaw, 3, Brocklehurst, Mandy. Boot, Terry. Patil, Padma
Slytherin, 7, Parkinson, Pansy. Malfoy, Draco. Crabbe, Vincent. Goyle, Gregory. Bulstrode, Milicent. Nott, Theodore. Zabini, Blaise.
Gryffindor, 8, Potter, Harry. Brown, Lavender. Weasley, Ron. Granger, Hermione. Finnigan, Seamus. Thomas, Dean. Longbottom, Neville. Patil, Parvati.

There are, however, several students in the sortiung hat chapter unaccounted for.

Page 90, 6th paragraph, PS. Neville gives the hat to one by thge name of MacDougal, Morag.

In the tenth paragraph of that pae, we have some last names. Moon, and Perks, Sally-Ann.

There were obviously more students waiting after that moment, and obviously there are some mentioned in the fourth book or others. But this is sorting hat I'm paying attention to.

In the fourth bopok we have not as many names, but some

Hufflepuff, Branstone, Eleanor. Cauldwell, Owen. Madley, Laura. Whitby, Kevin.
Ravenclaw, Ackerly, Stewart. Quirke, Orla.
Slytherin, Baddock, Malcolm. Pritchard, Graham.
Gryffindor, Creevey, Dennis. McDonald, Natalie.

One of Emma Dobbs, to whom we do not know the house.

And the fifth book sorting.

Gryffindor, Abercrombie, Euan.
HUfflepuff, Zeller, Rose.


Books two and three are excluded, as there is no sorting.

I know this is just a list, but's that all I intended. a bit of reference.

Somewhere between 600-700.

At the start of OotP it's mentioned that there are 100 coaches taking students to the castle. Each coach seats 6 so there's a max of 600 students in second to seventh year (say roughly 100 a year). Plus roughly the same amount of ickle firsties you have somewhere between 600 and 700.

Of course they may not have extra coaches for the return journey which would bring the max down to 600.

She probably didn't need to think of other students in each year so she never bothered to. Though the teacher problem from how few we've seen is a good point. Another flaw in the story is the Defense against dark arts teacher position. As far as we know all students are required to take that class for 7 years at Hogwarts, however have houses ever been combined for that class? That's another flaw in the story from how busy some teachers must be.

But that's kind of off topic, but basicly that's probably why she didn't bother to think of that many students in each year. There would be too many characters that she would never use, and it would probably be difficult to think of that many names that sound right.

No point in introducing characters if they don't have a purpose.

Right i have read some of the posts in here..not all of them so im sorry if i reapeat anyone but...

everyones going on about "at my school..." etc etc are we parhaps forgetting that this is Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry and it is likely the Wizarding community is smaller than the muggle one.

Maybe its the simple fact that there just arnt as many witches and wizards as there are regular students at your school?


When I say "at my school", and I am sure I am speaking for the others, I am simply making a parallell between my school and hogwarts. I believe our "muggle" schools would be similar in how the students interact with each other and how the classes are set up and taught.
As for the size, there must be a fairly sizable community out there, not only is the bank run by hundreds of goblins, which tells me there are a lot of bank accounts, but there is also a lot of people working for the ministry. From the descriptions of the MOM, It seems to me like there is several hundred witches and wizards working there, plus all the healers and workers at St Mungos, the shopkeepers at Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley and the other Alleys we dont know about and all the other areas of the wizarding world that Harry hasnt come into contact with. It seems to me that the wizarding world is pretty big and 120 kids born a year in the whole of England, Ireland and Scotland is probably about right for the size of the community.

I find it hard to believe that 1000 kids are in the school. It seems like too few courses and teachers for that many people. I did the math a long time ago and also got 280, which makes so much more sense. For example, in Harry's year, it just seems weird that there are only three Gryffindor girls we know about, and that there coule be so many more in other Houses. I just like the idea of 290 students total much more. Plus, with so many kids performing magic in classrooms, a lot of mistakes can happen, and things can go wrong.

I read the numbers and come up with the same totals you do but JK said 1000 and two facts make that cool with me. 1 is that she does not have to involve every character with name and anything more than a numbered position and secondly each class has about 30 students in it normally and 30 X 4 houses X7 years comes to 840 students and all is averages from the way she writes so 100 is a lot more plausible that way.

Sorry if this thread's already been started... How many students are at Hogwarts? JKR says about 1000.
I feel like "1000" students at Hogwarts is a bit much. I thought there was 280. My reasoning was that we've never seen any other Gryffindor boys but those in Harry's dorm. So there's five Gryffindors we've accounted for. Then there's Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati. There's another three. Let's say there's about ten Gryffindors. Multiply that by four for each house (40), and then by 7 for each year (280). Even if there's 700 students at Hogwarts, each house would have 25 members for a particular year - meaning there'd be 17 other Gryffindors we haven't met - not including the 300 I left out in order to do the calculations easier. I just can't imagine there being 1000 students at Hogwarts. What do you think?

...too....much....math..... :no:

1,000 does seem like a lot. But in the Great Hall scences there looks like about 1,000 kids in the hall. Harry is pretty popular, and he seems to know a lot more people then your average 15 year old wizard does- how many does Harry personally know? I'm guessing around 100. 1,000 doesn't seem right. This really should be a JKR answered question.

yeah

Did you see these threads?

280 Students (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=14866)
Fewer students in first year ( http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=32863)
A Student list once and for all! (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=24248)
Hogwarts students not mentioned in the books (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=23566)

If you head over to hogwarts-library.net, the very excellent Troels has an essay on this, in a section on numerical discrepancies in the books.
The argument from there I find most convincing, in a nutshell:

JKR is very bad at maths.
For small scenes, such as a class, the dorm, about 10 students/house/year is right. But you need about 1000 students to fill up that rambling castle.
So 4 x 10 x 7 = 1000 in the potterverse.

Or, take the 10 students/class/year so around 280 overall as correct, and read the larger numbers at Quidditch, the Yule Ball, as synonyms for "a whole lot."

There's probably a bunch of students that JKR just doesn't mention!

there are probably a whole lot of other people that aren't crucial to the plot that we haven't been introduced to, in addition to needing to fill up the entire castle. for all we know, there could be another dormitory for fifth year Gryffindor boys, and there may be more Gryffindor girls that went unmentioned as well. JKR should answer this question sometime though. i thought 1000 students seemed a bit too much when i first did the maths as well.

In book 2, possibly 3 she could have introduced the two missing Gryffindor girls who have been postulated. After 5 books, I can't see tossing in "Amanda Jones and Laura Smith, who have been in all of those Gryffindor classes we've seen, but never mentioned." And a missing 20+ students? Remember the 20 broomsticks and 20 cauldrons for classes with the Slytherins.

She probably made a mistake

Did you see these threads?

280 Students (http://www.cosforums.com/showthread.php?t=14866)
Heh. That's the thread we are in right now! :rotfl:

I dont care what the math adds up to or if there are numerous facts pointing the other way. Whatever JK says is the way it is.

I think 1000 sounds about right. Hogwarts is a HUGE place. There have to be more than just 5 boys in Gyrffindor that are in Harry's year. There have to be more students the JKR just doesn't mention. We are looking at Harry's life so we mainly deal with the students that Harry deals with. I went to a school that had around 600 students and I didn't know some of the people in my year let alone see all of the people in my year on a daily basis! So, it is possible that there are more students that we just do not hear about!

I find it very interesting that nobody brought this up...

JK Rowling never said the houses were equal in size. As a matter of fact, it's very likely they are unequal, because the sorting hat places them in different houses based on personality traits: good deeds (Gryffindor); "intellectual prowess (Ravenclaw), slimy snaky underhanded cheater types (Slytherin) and the rest-- that don't fit anywhere else (Hufflepuff). (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts_Houses ) I am guessing Hufflepuff is the largest house, while Slytherin is fairly sizable. However, since we don't know the average characteristics of Witches and Wizards, maybe Rowling will surprise us by saying that half the communnity ends up in Ravenclaw. Who knows?

Second of all, the Dark Lord was killing people left and right. He knew that a baby was upcoming who would be able to destroy him. Much like the Pharoah who attempted to kill all the babies to prevent Moses's survival, wouldn't Voldemort have discouraged birthing during the year or two he expected this kid to come along? People would know he was suddenly into killing babies and may have thought twice before getting pregnant for those two years between the prophecy and Voldemort's fall.

So clearly, the calculation of 200-300 students makes a lot of false assumptions.

I suppose there are likely to be other dorm rooms in Gryffindor we don't know about. Harry doesn't have to get to know everybody--he might avoid getting to know other students in his year, even unconsciously. After all, he dislikes attention (except when it comes from Hogwarts faculty).

so, if there are 1000 students at Hogwarts, and they are split up so Harry's year is about half the normal size, then it would have 1/7 * 1/2 of 1000 = 71 students. If Gryffindor has about half the students as the rest of the houses, on average, then 71 * 1/4 * 1/2 = about 8 to 10 students in his year in his house. This seems about right.

JKR says 1000 students, so, well, she's the boss...

There have to be more than just 5 boys in Gyrffindor that are in Harry's year.
Um, not likely. There are 5 beds in the fifth year Gryffindor dormitory room. We would have heard of it by now if there were more boys in Harry's own year!!! He goes to classes with them, and not once is there mentioned another?

Also in Ootp harry is yelling at one of his freinds in the dorm(i forgot who) and tells him that if he really cant live with harry he should ask McGonallgal to change his dorm room. This implies there are more than five or six kids a year. I wrote this because of previous posts saying there was only one room per year.
Maybe Seamus could live with the boys a year younger or older?

JKR is very bad at maths.
JKR said that in context with years subtracted from the Sorcerer's Stone taking place in 1992, you subtract 500 and that's not Sir Nick's deathday, or something. As in, in context with super-fans who decide to analyze figures and years and stuff, when Harry Potter is supposed to have taken place at a generic contemporary time.

I think that the student population numbers are a different story: there are so few Gryffindors Harry's age, that the disparity between there being 10 in a house per year = 280 students and 1000...

Did you realize we only know for sure that there are 5 boys in Gryffindor, in Harry's year...

Maybe this has something to do with Voldemort's conquests over a decade before, when these to-be Gryffindors were but infants?

Or maybe there were fewer boys cut out for Gryffindor that year?

You can't just assume anything beyond there being 5 boys in Harry's year, Harry's house.
It is implied that there are 3 girls in Harry's year, but, see above for possible, actual reasons.

There very well could be 1000 students in hogwarts, if there were
15 of each gender per house per year (avg)
30 per house per year (avg)
120 per year (avg)
840 students at Hogwarts.

Perhaps most students end up in Hufflepuff?

Who knows?

Maybe JKR will tell us, one day...

There is also only one potion master and two houses usually attend each class, Gryffindor and Slytherin for example. That suggests a small number of Hogwart's first year students and school with less than 1000 unless wizards can be taught at Hogwarts above the age of 17 years but I do not see any evidence for this.

Some explanations I offer (silly and serious)

1 - Voldemort killed all expecting women and children around Harry's age he could.
2 - Things got really bad right around the time Harry was born, which scared many would-be parents out of having children (magical deseases, Death Eaters, caused by Voldy)
3 - Fewer students generally go into Gryffindor
4 - Parents of young children around Harry Potter's era fled the country for safer parts of the world where Voldy might have less power and influence, reducing the number in his class, specifically.
5 - Parents didn't want their kids around that "potter boy" so they sent their kids to beauxbatons or another school.
6 - Rowling made a mistake in her math
7 - Rowling made a mistake in her math that she plans to reconcile with a good explanation, soon.
8 - Following Voldemort's demise, the Death Eaters hunted down and killed all little children Harry's age, attempting to destroy Harry Potter--however, a spell had been cast which protected Number Four, Privet drive...
9 - In an attempt to hide their children from the Death Eater hunting, many students in Harry's year were disguised as being a year older or younger than they actually were, and this has continued.
10 - To protect Harry, Dumbledore intentionally kept Gryffindor House small, so it would be easy to watch the students around him for suspicious behavior.
11 - J K Rowling's computer accidentally deleted half the students in the Gryffindor House Roster, altering the plotline forever
12 - A black hole erupted at Hogwarts directly after Rowling mentioned the 1000 student count, and since black holes cause time distortions, the disappearance of the other 720 students was retroactive backwards in time.
13 - 720 of the students are ghosts which endlessly learn, just as Binns endlessly teaches even while dead

14 - The professors use time-turners to teach enough classes to the various students at Hogwarts, just as Hermione used one to attend multiple classes. Why else would Hogwarts have a time-turner?
15 - Classes are shorter than we think
16 - Wizards have more hours in the day than Muggles
17 - Much like a limited room of requirement, an arbitrary number of dorm rooms and beds are available for students at Hogwarts
18 - Gryffindor is large enough that the house is effectively split into two sections, with different schedules
19 - Rowling simply hasn't stated the names and outlined the existence of each student in Harry's year and House. Maybe she tried, but it didn't fit well into her explanations because it would reveal something we're not supposed to know yet.
20 - Hogwarts has more than 7 years of students: the 8-10 years are much like college students, some of whom are assistant professors to the overcrowded houses (Hufflepuff, for example).
21 - Wizards use a base 6 or 8 number system, so 1000 students actually translates to 512 or 216 students.

Those are excellent reasons. Wow, 21! Good for you. You've got me thinking....

1. Perhaps some students are homeschooled in the early years now that Voldemort's back, and enter the school for fifth year to take the OWLs and then NEWTs.

2. Perhaps there are "elementary schools" in some remote areas that only go up to OWLs, and those kids transfer in for NEWT study. I bet even kids from other schools transfer to Hogwarts to be under Dumbledore for NEWT training.

I'm sure not every wizard child is ready for boarding school when they turn 11.

3. There are adults who attend adult-education classes, or "continuing magical education" at Hogwarts who need refreshers in subjects. Like Healers who need to be recertified now and then, or Aurors who need physical training. This could account for a great deal of people. Some universities in the U.S. have three times more adult continuing education students then they do regular students.

They would likely study in a different section of the school and have different professors. It's not likely the teachers would overlap. They would likely be port-key students and not need dormitories. But they would probably come to Great Hall dinners and such. And I think your #10 answer is probably very accurate. The sorting hat and Dumbledore seem close enough that he could probably influence the hat's decision. (Taken out of context that last sentence sounds silly)


And maybe, just maybe.....

.....there is a very special place...

For magical One Parent Families on campus...

.......Where the parents are encouraged, nurtured, kept with their children, and given quiet coffee shops to write books in. These special parents might need teachers who understand diaper calls during Divination class, and the difficulties of doing fire spells in homes with small children, and get cooking classes using the "One Minute Meals, It's Magic!" text. Perhaps there are 700 of these parents from around the world. Perhaps they have a wealthy mystery benefactor only known as "Joanne" who, it is rumored, has a secret account at Gringotts for One Parent Families, and continually conspires with Dumbledore on their behalf....

But I'm getting off topic now. Oops.

There definitely no more that 5 boys in Griffindor of Harry's age. It was specifically said in the books that there are only 5 beds in the dorm of Harry's. And on the list that JKR had shown to us there is only 5 boys, and only 3 girls. As it was never said that Griffindor has fewer students than other houses (and it should be important, as it affects the point system) we can assume that 8 students is not an outstandingly small number. So, 280 students sounds about right. I have trouble imagining a table that sits 250... it should be ~300 feet long, and while not impossible for a really huge hall, it would really separate students from the same house sitting on the opposite ends. Besides, it's not like JKR never made a mistake. She is a human, right?

you forgot about the weasley twins

I read through some but not all posts sorry if this has been mentioned.

At the time when Harry was born there was a very evil wizard prowling around. It was dark times as Hagrid would say. How many people would go out of their way to bring a child into the world during that period?

So yes Harry's class is very small. We only know of 5 Gryffindor Boys, remember you have to be brave and all that stuff to get into Gryffindor. It would make sense to me that after Harry vanquished the evil force that people would start to have babys again.

That leads me to beleive that the classes under him would be a great deal bigger than his own.

Just my thought on it. You can't account for muggleborns though.

I whole-heartedly disagree that 280 students makes sense. From all accounts, it MUST be more, so Harry's house and year MUST be either unusually small, or there must be more than 7 years' of students.

-We know in many cases there is a literal rumbling in the halls overhead as Harry hears classes let out (*sorry, no source quotation here). We have been TOLD there are over 1000, so really, the only argument is WHY Harry's house and year is not a representative size.

I whole-heartedly disagree that 280 students makes sense. From all accounts, it MUST be more, so Harry's house and year MUST be either unusually small, or there must be more than 7 years' of students.

-We know in many cases there is a literal rumbling in the halls overhead as Harry hears classes let out (*sorry, no source quotation here). We have been TOLD there are over 1000, so really, the only argument is WHY Harry's house and year is not a representative size.
there IS more than 7. They have 8 in Griffindor in Harry's year. As to his house being smaller than others, does not work either. When Harry had a class of herbology in book 2, there was "about 20 earmuffs" - for 2 houses, Hufflepuff and Griffindor (and Herbology ain't an elective subject, so ALL students go there). At some poinyt (forgot when) Snape, wanting to break up Harry/Ron team, paired Griffindor and Slytherin students, and apparently did not have any trouble doing so - meaning that there is approximately as many Slytherin and Hufflepuff students as Griffindor. And, by induction, we can reasonably assume that the number of Ravenclaw is approximately the same as other houses.

Now, is Harry's class unusually small? do not think so. When Harry entered the great hall for his OWLs, he remarked that the tables for the examenees were placed exactly as he saw in the pensive. Meaning that the number of tables was practically the same, and there was a table for a student. Now, James and Ko. were born and started the school BEFORE the rise of LV, Hogwarts was always safe from any attacks, so their number should not be much affected by the war. It indicates that Harry's year is pretty much as large as it always was.

Now, the passage you try to quote actually states that there was a sound of hundreds of students moving in the halls. 280 is hundreds, as in plural, and it is really hard to estimate the number of people in a crowd by the sound of steps with any precision. Once again, JKR COULD be wrong, and when she is, it is usually with numbers (like years of difference between Charlie and Percy, etc.).

There are 200 people in Slytherin alone, and that's 1/4 of the school, so 800 people is a better estimate.
if you wanted to get a really good estimate, "The Lost 200" are probably about most in Hufflepuff, with healthy percentages scattered around the other houses, coming and going with the classes. For example at our school my grade has 91 kids in it, in the next grade up, they have about 150. They just have to change class sizes and last year add new lockers. LOL.

There's probably a bunch of students that JKR just doesn't mention!
Yeah, that's a better solution XD

Wow, it's amazing to see that my thread has stood the test of time, I haven't been here in quite a while, but it's nice to see that my thread is still going strong (so strong in fact, that it's included in the 'open letter' to JKR!)

thanks for everybody's opinions on the matter, now does anybody know Hermione's parents names?

I still say 280

that's 10 new students (5 boys, 5 girls) each year, per house.....

so, that's 10

seven years of course study at Hogwarts

so, that's seven

Four different houses

so that's four

ten times seven times four equals two-eighty.......

we have plenty of evidence to support this claim........1000 just doesn't make sense, due to the fact that there are so few teachers.......

I don't know where all this "Hufflepuff is the biggest house" nonsense is coming from, nor do I understand how Slytherin has 200 students......

it's obvious, at least to me, that there are 70 students in each house.......

the evidence, and math points to this.....

Herbology lesson, 20 pairs of earmuffs......

Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs

10 Gryffindors (5 second-year boys, 5 second-year girls) 10 Hufflepuffs (5 second-year boys, 5 second-year girls)

seems pretty simple to me........

I got 280 to, but in one of the books it is said:
"Behind the Slytherin goal posts,
however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of
Slytherin glittered on their flags"...
so with 200 slyherins the logical number is 200*4 = 800!!

it said two hundred PEOPLE, not two-hundred Slytherins......

remember, quidditch is kinda played in secret, so the Muggles won't get suspicious.....how many pitches are really in England?

is it not possible, that some of those 200 are people who have already GRADUATED hogwarts, and want to cheer their team? I know many people who don't go to my local high school, who attend the games, because they USED TO GO, and they cheer their team......

so, using this as a base of reference is no indication that there are 200 slytherins currently attending......nor does it indicate that all those people in the stands are slytherins......some could be parents of slytherin, and some could simply be slytherin supporters..........

it's no basis for comparison, especially in this regard......

What we need to get, at the end of book Seven, is a series of apocrypha (Much like was done in LOTR), that explains a lot of the extrapolation in the books......

things not integral to the story, but explain unanswered questions......

and much like the LOTR books, this will be updated with each new edition, until all unanswered questions have been answered......(What's hermione's parents names?, etc.)

A dedicated author (and I'm not saying Jo isn't dedicated) would write out the entire school roster from year one, to year seven........Tolkien would've done it, because he was a detail fanatic.....

I'm not saying it HAS to be done, but I **** well believe it SHOULD be done......

Impossible, if there's 2 new prefects from each fith year house then that leaves 3 girls and 3 boys in each year, which doesn't make sense.

To elaborate further on how I arrived at the "5 boys and 5 girls" estimate, consider this.....

Hogwarts isn't the ONLY wizarding school in Europe (or even England for that matter) just the BEST.....

which means they can be selective in the number of students they take in each year.....and while it kinda throws the Sorting ceremony into suspect, consider this.....not everybody's dominant personality trait is what gets them into their house.......it was a virtual lock that Draco would become a Slytherin......the same as it was that the Weasleys would all be Gryffindors, sure the Patil sisters were split up, and that seems fishy, but the clincher is Neville Longbottom.......

Neville seems to be a klutz, which he is, and we didn't really learn, until much later, why he became a Gryffindor......so, his dominant personality (that of a foolish oaf) should've determined that he should've been a Hufflepuff (they're all a bunch of duffers), but instead, he became a Gryffindor, and even Harry himself was considered for Slytherin......so, it's not based on dominant personality, but rather, random chance....thus, the 40 new students STILL have to be sorted, and will likely work with quota estimates.....

as such, accomodation is limited.........it's not like, if a hundred kids are born 'magical' each year, they all get to go to Hogwarts......that'd be like saying, that just because 4,000,000 new babies were born in England in a particular year, they all get to go to Eton......

there are other magic schools, they just aren't all in the same 'league', it's the difference between Harvard, and Ohio State.......

Harvard is more prestigious, and you have to get lucky to go there......Ohio State will take anyone who's check clears.....

Impossible, if there's 2 new prefects from each fith year house then that leaves 3 girls and 3 boys in each year, which doesn't make sense.

That's an interesting point, but consider this.....(??s indicate that I do not know the names of any students durin that year, all names, save for Hermione and Ron, are used as speculation/example only, and do not indicate who will end up as prefects for any given year)

Harry's Year:

5th Year Prefects
Hermione Granger
Ron Weasley

6th Year Prefects
??
??

7th Year Prefects
??
??

so, the next year, we could consider this:

5th Year Prefects (Just as an example)
Colin Creevy
Ginny Weasley

6th Year Prefects
Hermione Granger
Ron Weasley

7th Year Prefects
??
??

then the following year:

5th Year Prefects
Dennis Creevy
??

6th Year Prefects
Colin Creevy
Ginny Weasley

7th Year Prefects
Hermione Granger
Ron Weasley

do you get my point?

I read through some but not all posts sorry if this has been mentioned.

At the time when Harry was born there was a very evil wizard prowling around. It was dark times as Hagrid would say. How many people would go out of their way to bring a child into the world during that period?

So yes Harry's class is very small. We only know of 5 Gryffindor Boys, remember you have to be brave and all that stuff to get into Gryffindor. It would make sense to me that after Harry vanquished the evil force that people would start to have babys again.

That leads me to beleive that the classes under him would be a great deal bigger than his own.

Just my thought on it. You can't account for muggleborns though.


You guys are missing the point. JK said there was a 1,000.

I don't care WHAT she said, she could be wrong, or she could have just thrown that number out......

the MATH of it, says 280, and until I see proof to the contrary, then that's what I'm going to believe......regardless of what she says......

There's got to be 280 with the correct math. 5 girls and 5 boys with a total of ten for each house for each year level. And since each house goes to class with another house (Ex. Gryffindors and Slytherins go to Potions together) it would make 20 students for the classroom - a pretty good class size number. But, JK Rowling DID SAY that there were 1,000 students attending so I'm not sure which to believe, only that, I hope JK Rowling clears things up for us.

I'm pretty sure there are 1000 students, especially if Jo says there is. I mean, she is the boss ;) :agree:

and she could've said it without thinking......

until I see PROOF, meaning, it's stated in a book, then it's conjecture, even if it DID come from JK herself.....

I have worked out maps of the dormotories, and it doesn't seem inconcievable that there could be accomodation for more than 280 students, but it's illogical........

Magic is supposed to be illogical. It's hard for Muggles to imagine that many students in just one house. But like someone said some places can be "stretched" out magically so the space is bigger from the inside than from the outside (It is something hard to describe and imagine since we are muggles and have a muggle and non-magical view of the world).

Plus, we dont have an idea of how big the dormitories are. It has never been said. We have never seen any other part of Gryffindor tower except for Harry's rooms and the common room.

In college some classes are HUGE where a Prof. takes on lots and lots of students at once. So it's possible for a teacher to teach 70+ students at once.

Lectures in college can hold up to 300 people

I have a hard time believing that there may be 1000 students myself. But 280 seems too low also. It would seem riddiculous that only 40 students would be accepted every year to be divided evenly among the 4 houses. As HPGoddess101 stated, JK "is the boss" so I think she would know how many students there are. Jo probably has them all named as well.

I just read back through this thread and it made me laugh. All the people who say JK is wrong, there is only 280ish students, crack me up.

She made this world, she is the one who tells YOU what is happened and what will happen. She made cars fly, a tree that fights back, animagi, and every flavor beans. I think she would know how many students there are in her world.

This makes sense.....

JK Said there are about a thousand students at Hogwarts, but I just don't buy it.....

I think there are 5 boys, and 5 girls, per house, per year.....

this makes more sense, since there are so few teachers to go around.....

so, in Harry's first year the new Griffyndor boys are: Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville

and the new Gryffindor girls are: Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, ?, ?

this makes sense, ONLY until we discover a 6th person in somebody (Harry, Ginny, etc.) Year, in the same house......

anybody catch my drift?

this would also explain the dormotory arrangement, 5 Four-Posters per dorm........with each year of each house occupying it......

each dorm is kept by the same group ALL SEVEN YEARS, and after the seventh year, it's vacated, and the first years occupy it......

in the case of Fred and George, their dorm is now two beds vacant

in the case of Marcus Flint, they probably hadda put a sixth bed in his dorm (since he was held back a year)The same question was asked of JKR. in an interview she said that there were approx. 1000 students, and that she new the mth did not make sense. However I do agree with you that the numbers do come out far fewer. Compiling data one night usung books 1, 4, 5 when Harry was at the sorting ceremony I manageged to get the numbers approaching close to 400 but that was all. I guess a lot must of been held back for OWLs and NEWTs during Quirrels year. After all Umbridge held him in high regard and we all know she and Querriel were the best DADA teachers Hogwarts has ever seen. :nc:

I believe JKR. There's no way that she would wrongly throw out the number 1,000 if she wasn't sure of it, approximation or no. There's far too big a difference between 1,000 and 280 (720 students, to be exact) for her to accidentally estimate. I was also thinking, just because we only know of one dorm per gender for Harry's year, does not mean that there isn't at least a second one. It says in CoS that their room was now labeled "Second Years", emphasis on "their room". Who's to say that there aren't more than one room for each year?

Sorry, I just find it highly ridiculous that people are willing to blankly state that Rowling got it so outlandishly wrong in her answer to how many students attended Hogwarts. I've seen plenty of documentaries and interviews with the woman where she shows glimpses of all the detailed information that she has created for her world (most of which is never even seen on paper, such as the intricate backstories of unremarkable characters) and I don't doubt that she's thoroughly established the capacity of the school, how many students in each year, etc. etc.

Here are the arguments I see...

JKR says there are 1000 students. Is the writer wrong? I suppose if JKR is wrong, then Sirius isn't dead, Voldemort isn't evil, Harry's parents are still alive, Ron is more loyal to Percy than Harry, Dumbledore doesn't really care about Potter, and Pettigrew isn't a villian--he was accused just as well as Sirius Black. You could make cases for every one of those points, even though JKR has in most people's eyes made the issues clear.
--If she said there are 1000 students, and there is a problem with the math, she will find a way to reconcile this statement. Either she will say "oh, scrap that" or she will modify (or reveal) information to support the fact.

Could someone please give me a source to go on, though? (When did she say there were 1000 students? Please include a link to the page I can see it).

Perhaps because I like the idea of there being 1000 students, I want to think of ways we can reason that such a number is possible. Beyond curiosity, though, the stories won't be affected severely either way.

Here are some ways she may, in the future, create or reveal where the high count comes from, and how it relates to the evidences we have seen thus far...

Harry's dorm room has 5 students, and they consist of all those in his year.
(1) There has been no statement that his number represents the size of all houses and years, either closely OR remotely. Such an assumption would be purely aesthetic. An assumption to the contrary works, however, to support the statement given by the writer herself.. It does seem likely that it is somewhat representative, even if on the low side, if you ignore the number supposedly given by JKR.
RESOLUTIONS: Dorm room sizes vary. House sizes vary. This may be due to population loss caused by the Dark Lord, by uneven House sorting, multiple dorms to each year, an uncounted and large number of girls in the Gryffindor class with Harry...
(2) In combined classes, it has appeared that various houses have had similar sizes, because there were equal numbers of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students.
RESOLUTIONS: If Hufflepuff and Gryffindor match sizes in Harry's year exactly, then it's likely that size match was created artificially. Either the Hat sorts equally, or there are multiple classes of Herbology for each house. (IE Hufflepuff second years got split into two separate Herbology classes.) Does the language in the books imply exact pairing? Could two years' of Gryffindors have been grouped with one year of Hufflepuffs? Could there have been multiple bins of earmuffs, implying more students?
(3) There were apparently around 200 Slytherins with banners at a quidditch game. Anybody know which one?
RESOLUTION: This either supports the approximation of 1000 Hogwarts students, or as suggested many of those banners were carried by alumni. If alumni or parents apparate outside of school grounds or take a portkey, why would Ron's parents have not visited briefly during a christmas break to open his gifts with him, or do something with him?

I suspect that future editions of the books may have to resolve any differences.
Does anyone refute the premise that fewer students were born, overall, in Harry's year?

Do all the students eat at the same time? At my school they staggered mealtimes and split the 7th year students into several math classes, etc.
Do the sixth and seventh year students have shorter classes, perhaps, while they spend more time doing research in the library and studying on their own?

A GOOD, COMPLETE SUMMARY OF THIS DISCUSSION THREAD online...

Well, I was about to write up another conjecture, but I found a web page
which covers just about all the ideas, and more, than have been touched on in this discussion. However, one thing I noticed in this web page that was not suggested was that other houses, and perhaps even Gryffindor, have been split into separate classes (For example, in Herbology, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff together had 20 students in Harry's year. But what if this is only half of each house and year...?)
It might not mention either that the reason some classes may be smaller would be if from year 1 students had elective courses, and not all members of Gryffindor house take the same classes with Harry, Ron and Hermione?

The site notes there are definitely contradictions in the evidence. It's an interesting reading.

FAQ on Hogwarts School (click here) (http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hogwarts.html)

You will need to scroll down to "The Student Population at Hogwarts"

Enjoy!

if it where as big as she said
then the whole magic community must be bigger than we think aswell

There are 30 Gryffindor students in Harry's DADA class. DADA is a one house only class and up until fifth year (at least) it is mandatory.

He had hardly talked to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates. -- OoTP, pg 246, (US version)

What JK says goes (1000), but it still drives me crazy.

"Behind the Slytherin goal posts,
however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of
Slytherin glittered on their flags"...
so with 200 slyherins the logical number is 200*4 = 800!!


Well, that make more sense to me, even though it doesn't make total sense. That would mean that there is about 28 students in each year. That just makes so much more sense. It still seems big for classes being potions, that are taught with Gryff. and Slyth... that'd be 56... imagine fifty six first years (12 year olds) trying to make potions. AHHH!!! I think half of that would be more reasonable. If there was 100 people in each house, 400 all together, it would make 14 in each year for each house. So it could work if another house was supporting Slytherin for that particular quidditch match. Remember Luna supported Gryffindor even though she was a Ravenclaw.

Pft, I don't care what JK says, there's no way there can be 1000+ students at that school. Oh, I realize that other houses can have more kids in a particular year and everything, which I do accept, but 1000? No way. Possibly, there may 1000+ living things total in that school, like teachers, students, ghosts, house elves, and every other living thing there. And of course, everyone's favorite polterologist, Peeves.

yes their can be 1000 students its what 36 students per year in each house. Have to remeber that though we may have meant only 13 or 14 students that are in the same year as him, in the books JK doesn't give a big detail account on everyday durning the school year is she did we would proably have meant most of them . Its the people that are close to him not really close like like Ron or Hermoine but like ernie or dean that we may not see alot of during the book but harry sees alot of durning his year. Start conserding ernie macmillian as a very good friend.

There are more profesors that those whom we've read. Just think who teaches classes like muggle studies, runes, arithmancy,etc. In page 484 of british version is mentioned a profesor named Vector. So I think that appart from McGonagall, Flitwick, Trelawney, Sinistra, Fierenze, Binns, Snape and unlucky DADA teacher. Maybe there are different profesors in NEWT levels or more signatures that have not been mentioned.

God, I can't remember where I read it now but I do remember seeing an interview/ post/something where it gave the exact numbers of students going into each house Harry's first year. If I remember correctly the number averaged out to ~13 students per house. If you assume class sizes don't fluctuate that would put the school size at 634 students. But if you take into consideration that class sizes would fluctuate and that every wizard/witch in the UK goes to Hogwarts then I'd say that 800 is a closer guesstimate. Meaning Jo's right about her own books! (What a shocker!) Rounded that is ~ 1000 students. :blush:

you only know that there are only 5 gryffindor boys

How many teachers are at hogwarts?? we only heard of like 7 or something so how can 7 teachers teach 1000 more then once a week?

I totally agree with that chocolate_roses.

Concerning teachers, although we do only only know of a few, could there possibly more than one teacher per subject? For example, people have often referred to Snape as the "Potions master" of Hogwarts. Could there possibly be couple of other teachers who teach potions, but are not considered a "master" because of how long they've been teaching at Hogwarts, or don't know as many potions as Snape does?

I totally agree with that chocolate_roses.

Concerning teachers, although we do only only know of a few, could there possibly more than one teacher per subject? For example, people have often referred to Snape as the "Potions master" of Hogwarts. Could there possibly be couple of other teachers who teach potions, but are not considered a "master" because of how long they've been teaching at Hogwarts, or don't know as many potions as Snape does?

I don't think there are a number of teachers per subject
Why else would Harry be so sad, year after year, at taking Potions? He could have gotten another teacher...

Hasn't she mentioned in one of her books that there was a couple of other girls in Hermione's year and house. Well anyway...just because there is only 5 in Harry's year and house doesn't mean there is every year. It's supposed to be magical, so I'm sure you can fit more beds and make the room bigger anytime you need. Plus we haven't even been introduced to as many people as you may think. If Jo Rowling says there are 1000 students in Hogwarts, then that would make since. Besides, I don't think she can manage to introduce all of the characters that are in the school. There is a chance that she hasn't introduced every single teacher either. I don't know...that's my opinion.

JKR, probably has a good reason, but still...it seems that Hufflepuff gets the most...

i might be alone.. but 280 seems like too small an amount. Yes 1000is absurd.. but I think its a little more then that..

You're not alone Moony! I think that too!!

You're not alone Moony! I think that too!!

yay! ok i feel better now :)

i was just thinking a bit more into it.. and i think there are probably like 320 students to 400... somewhere in there... it seems more logical

*mumbles* :grumble: or 500-600........

*mumbles* :grumble: or 500-600........

600 may be a bit too much... :shrug: but 500 may be ok if you stretch it just a bit..

I know, I know, I'm just saying it seems like there would be more, I mean, I think I know what I'm talking about, I have read 1-4 thirty-three times....

wow thats alot... so yeah you may know more then i thought. so i will just leave it at .. 280 too little 600 too much... :)

well, you know how in Gryfindor there is five boys in Harry's year? well, at the sorting ceremony, there was,like, 100-200 new students at hogwarts. if there is 5 to each year, of each house, of each gender, that would make like 60-100 un-housed. maybe there is more to hogwarts then meets the eyes.

I wonder if there are more gryfindors in Harrys year than JK mentions. There are definately 5 in Harrys dormitory, but there could be 4 dorms for each year in each house. (2 for girls and 2 for boys)

I'm sure that in one of the sorting hat's songs it says hufflepuff takes the ones that dont fit into the other houses as well.
This could explain why hufflepuff seems to have more students, most of my friends at school wouldn't really fit one of the houses more than another

This makes sense.....

JK Said there are about a thousand students at Hogwarts, but I just don't buy it.....

I think there are 5 boys, and 5 girls, per house, per year.....

this makes more sense, since there are so few teachers to go around.....

so, in Harry's first year the new Griffyndor boys are: Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville

and the new Gryffindor girls are: Hermione, Parvati, Lavender, ?, ?

this makes sense, ONLY until we discover a 6th person in somebody (Harry, Ginny, etc.) Year, in the same house......

anybody catch my drift?

this would also explain the dormotory arrangement, 5 Four-Posters per dorm........with each year of each house occupying it......

each dorm is kept by the same group ALL SEVEN YEARS, and after the seventh year, it's vacated, and the first years occupy it......

in the case of Fred and George, their dorm is now two beds vacant

in the case of Marcus Flint, they probably hadda put a sixth bed in his dorm (since he was held back a year)


Yes I AGREE. It is what is supported in the books, all the way through. I sat down once and figured it out too. I think JK was mistaken when she said 1000 in an interview (as much as she could be I mean, she is the author, but what she has written says 40 new students a year).
It just makes sense.

I dont know why you guys are even talking about this. JK is the author she knows her world. So if she says there is 1000 there is a 1000. NOt 400, 800, 999, 1001 but a 1000. You dont know better than her so untill she says different you have to go with what she says.

I dont know why you guys are even talking about this. JK is the author she knows her world. So if she says there is 1000 there is a 1000. NOt 400, 800, 999, 1001 but a 1000. You dont know better than her so untill she says different you have to go with what she says.


Ahh, yes, usually I would agree with you on this. But she has been known to make mistakes about things when she's giving interviews. She's even admitted to it. And, all the evidence in the books point to a different conclusion. If she were to say "no you dope, I said 1000, I meant 1000 and this is why....blah blah blah" I would gladly announce to the whole world that I was wrong about this.

I wonder if there are more gryfindors in Harrys year than JK mentions. There are definately 5 in Harrys dormitory, but there could be 4 dorms for each year in each house. (2 for girls and 2 for boys)

There ARE!!! It's in Book 5!

He had hardly talked to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates. OOtP, pg 245/6

(Emphasis mine.)

Harry's DADA is a Gryffindor only class and it is mandatory for Fifth Years (just like Potions and Transfiguration).

Whether or not you take it in your sixth and seventh year probably depends on your O.W.L. results.

You know I have tried to rationalize this and it is hard for me to believe that there are only 40 (20boys/20girls) of the proper age in all of england each year. I mean I know that being born with magical ability is supposed to be rare but the weaslys alone break that theroy. If there are only 20 boys allowed and fred and george are twins, and yes I know that is not very common but if another family had twin boys that would be four out of 20 you see where I'm going with this? It just seems like there would be more and I'll leave it at that before I confuse you or myself anymore!

I think that the student population at Hogwarts is just something you have to deal with. JKR herself said that there were 1000 students, and even if that doesnt logically make sense given the numbers that we already know, we must leave some questions unanswered and go with the assumptions in order to enjoy the story. Afterall, it would be an awfully large castle for a mere 300 students wouldnt it? :p

It doesn't really make sense. There's around 10 people in one year in one house, times that by 7 for each year in a house is 70 people in 1 house, times that by 4 for all the houses is 280. Even if there is more people in a certain house, that's got to be over 200 more in each house. In POA in the Quidditch Cup it says that 3/4 of the crowd were supporting Gryffindor (Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff) and 200 Slytherins supporting themselves. That makes 800 people in the school. That works out as 200 people in a house, 28 people in a year and about 14 people in each girls and boys dormitory. How would they all fit? And 5 people in 1 dormitory to 14 is a big difference.

Also - in OotP, Harry sees over a hundred students taking the DADA final. So, unless Harry is terrible at estimating, it seems as though there were over 100 students in the Marauders/Snape year of school. Doesn't necessarily mean there's that many in Harry's year.

I suppose there could be room in that castle for most students. It just strikes me as odd that we've never seen Harry mention any other Gryffindors in his year. There's not even a mention of "another fifth year girl who's name Harry forgot." So, I'm not saying there couldn't be 1000 or so students, just that circumstances seem a bit strange.

Current Students
Derek xxx - Extremely nervous when sorted.
Hannah Abbott - Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Euan Abercrombie - Terrified, sorted into Gryffindor, year
Stewart Ackerley - Sorted into Ravenclaw.
Malcolm Baddock - Sorted into Slytherin.
Katie Bell - Gryffindor Chaser. In DA class.
Miles Bletchley - Slytherin Keeper.
Susan Bones - Sorted into Hufflepuff. In DA class. Niece to Amelia Bones.
xx Bole - Slytherin beater. Left at the end of year 4.
Terry Boot - Sorted into Ravenclaw. In DA class.
xx Bradley - Ravenclaw Quidditch.
Eleanor Branstone - Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Mandy Brocklehurst - Sorted into Ravenclaw.
Lavender Brown - Sorted into Gryffindor.
Millicent Bulstrode - Slytherin grunt.
Eddie Carmichael - Pushing Baruffio's Brain Elixir.
Owen Cauldwell - Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Cho Chang - Ravenclaw seeker, fourth year
Penelope Clearwater - Prefect, Percys girlfriend.
Michael Corner - Ravenclaw. In DA class.
Vincent Crabbe - Crony to Draco.
Dennis Creevey - Sorted into Gryffindor year
Colin Creevey - small mousy haired Gryffindor.
Roger Davies - Ravenclaw Quidditch captain.
xx Derrick - Slytherin Beater. Left at the end of year 4.
Cedric Diggory - Hufflepuff Captain and Seeker.Triwizard champion.
Harold Dingle -Pushing powdered dragon claw.
Emma Dobbs - Sorted.
Marietta Edgecombe - Grassed on DA.
Miss xx Fawcett - In dueling club.
Ravenclaw; underage entrant.
Justin Finch-Fletchley- Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Seamus Finnigan - Sorted into Gryffindor.
Marcus Flint - Slytherin Quidditch captain
Vicky Frobisher - Gryffindor. Tried out for Keeper. Involved in all sorts of societies, including her Charms Club.
Anthony Goldstein -Prefect. In DA class.
Gregory Goyle - Crony to Draco.
Hermione Granger - Harrys second best friend
Daphne Greenglass - In year H+0.
Terence Higgs - Slytherin Seeker.
Geoffrey Hooper - Gryffindor. Tried out for Keeper. "He's a whiner."
Angelina Johnson - Gryffindor Chaser.
Lee Jordan Black, Dreadlocks, quidditch commentator.
Andrw Kirke - New Slytherin Beater. "Pathetic."
Neville Longbottom - Frank and Alices son, friends to the trio.
Luna Lovegood - Ravenclaw, dads the editor of The Quibbler
Morag MacDougal - Sorted.
Ernie Macmillan - Prefect, is on Harry + Dumbledores side all the time.
Laura Madley - Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Draco Malfoy - hmm, pathetic, elitist bully.
Natalie McDonald -Sorted into Gryffindor.
Eloise Midgen - Tried to curse her acne.
xx Montague - Slytherin Chaser.
xx Moon - Sorted.
Theodore Nott - Slytherin. Weedy-looking.
Pansy Parkinson - Sorted in Slytherin. Crony to Draco. Prefect.
Parvati Patil - Sorted in Gryffindor
Padma Patil - Sister to Parvati; in Ravenclaw.
Sally-Anne Perks - Sorted.
Harry James Potter - Well duh! :)
Graham Pritchard - Sorted into Slytherin.
Adrian Pucey - Slytherin Chaser.
Orla Quirke - Sorted into Ravenclaw.
Zacharias Smith - Hufflepuff. In DA class. Hufflepuff Quidditch; probably captain.
Jack Sloper - New Slytherin Beater, "Pathetic."
Alicia Spinnet - Gryffindor Chaser, In DA classes.
Mr. xx Stebbins - Hufflepuff.
Patricia Stimpson - Faint at the thought of O.W.L. exams.
xx Summerby - Hufflepuff Seeker.
Mr. xx Summers - Hufflepuff; underage entrant.
Dean Thomas - Sorted into Gryffindor, In many of Harrys classes
Kenneth Towler - Got boils due to O.W.L. exams and/or Bulbadox powder.
Lisa Turpin - Sorted into Ravenclaw
xx Warrington - Slytherin Quidditch (probably Chaser).
Ron Weasley - Harrys sidekick
Fred and George Weasley - Legendary Pranksters, now opened own shop.
Ginny Weasley - 7th child of the Weasleys, Opens the CoS
Percy Ignatius Weasley - Head Boy, later worked at the MoM
Kevin Whitby - Sorted into Hufflepuff.
Oliver Wood - Gryffindor Quidditch captain and Keeper.
Blaise Zabini - Sorted into Slytherin.
Rose Zeller - Sorted into Hufflepuff.

I know some will have left during Harrys time in the school, while others will have arrived...
There are 83 students there, so take about 20 for when some left and others arrived.
About 60, so about 60 students that Harry noticed by name so that would tend to fit in with there being only 200-300 i think, as 60 known by name, that must mean at least two times more not known by name which is 200. Ofcourse thats all just guess work :)

It would work out that in each house there would be 17 guys and 18 gals (or vice versa) in each year - dont mean to be argumentative - but in my opinion what jk says IS u know- but i do agree that it doesnt seem to wouk out - but then agen in the films the classes are bigger than "usual" classes - hope i havent offended

I figure its JKR's world and if she says there's 1000 students, I bet there's 1000 students...

I figure its JKR's world and if she says there's 1000 students, I bet there's 1000 students...
:tu: i dont feel so bad about saying the same thing now - 1000 could be possible...