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Reader Comments: (Page 3)

280 students in the whole school? Oh my gosh! There's more people than that on my team at school! A team is sorta like a House at Hogwarts only in my district each team has a letter.

Anyway, my school is about 4 times bigger than that.

Dave, you haven't accounted for the size of the dormitories. Maybe they can only fit 5 boys per room. Honestly, if there were 18 boys in Harry's year, how would they all fit in the same dormitory? I think there's more then just 7 rooms for the boys in each house. If there's only 280 students in the whole school, why is the castle so big? My school's only 3 floors and we fit about 1000 people in there at all times, not counting teachers, lunch las, custodians, librarians, the chicks who work at the counter, ect.

When it comes down to it, JKR's word is law, and i suck at math anyways. So yeah.

Posted by Ashley Ross from Missouri on December 5, 2007 2:50 PM

You know, I've never really seemed interested in the size of the school's population, but know that we've brought it up, I am not sure how many students there would be in Hogwarts. I mean, I know there is alot, but how much? I have no idea.

Posted by Lara from East Greenville, PA on December 5, 2007 4:51 PM

Although I consider myself to be a BIG Harry Potter fan, I have not lost ANY sleep trying to figure out how many students are attending Hogwarts. Having said that, are you all forgetting that this is a school of magic? As far as the common room goes, why can't it expand like the trunk of the Ford Anglia?

You also need to remember that although there are several basic subjects, there are also many "elective" subjects. Harry, Ron and Hermione don't all have the same schedule so who's to say that the rest of the Gryffindors are in all the same classes. Unless I am mistaken, they never say that the individual years are in the same class at the same time.

When I was in High school (a decade and a half ago) I remember having the same basic classes as my friends but not necessarily during the same period. Can't that be possible at a school for magic?

Posted by Laina from Anaheim, Ca on December 6, 2007 6:59 PM

1000 students is too much for only 4 houses! And of there are only 10 students in each year per house (5 guys + 5 girls) that number would never be reached.

Also, who says that one must go to the school in the country we live in? We know that Draco's father had intentions of sending him to Durmstrang, at the other end of Europe, so maybe not all the wizards of England go to Hogwarts, some may be at the other 2 known European schools.

I totally agree in the smaller amount of students at the school, imagine 1000 wizards and witches, like Harry, Draco and Neville, well it would be chaos, multiplied by 100!

Posted by Maureen from Santiago, Chile on December 7, 2007 04:45 AM

it's also logical that because of the war there weren't so many kids, so now there are not so many kids, but usually it could take like a thousand kids. and you can't write an understandable book about 1000 kids now can you?

Posted by Kris from Hallond on December 7, 2007 2:31 PM

I agree with you that the count of 1000 is a overstep and I too have thought about it. I satisfied my curiosity by an explanation that there indeed is 1000 students in hogwarts because I believe that J.K. Rowling would not answer this question wrong. The reasoning I have to believe this is that it was never set in stone that there was an even amount of kids in each house and each year. Every year kids receive their letter to come to hogwarts and you never know who show magical abilities. Then if we consider that wizards pop up at random there is a big chance that the amount of wizards can range greatly. Then as the first years are sorted by what their characteristic's are there is again a chance that the kids are not sorted to even out the houses but rather in whatever house they belong.

In conclusion I believe it depends on the amount and personality of the new class of students adding on to the hogwarts personnel.

Posted by Marian Hangebrauk from Eugene, OR on December 7, 2007 4:12 PM

The Hogwarts castle is so big that I always thought there were thousands of students, but in the movies, the common room is so small, there couldn't be many people that could fit in there. JKR only ever mentions a few students from Gryffindor and there are only two more wizarding schools mentioned. I thought there were wizards everywhere in the world and the population was huge, and I would bet that there are other wizarding schools in Britain and other countries. There has to be.

Posted by Camille from Michigan on December 7, 2007 5:24 PM

of course their are other wizarding schools- what about beauxbatons and durmstrang? And some were home schooled, it said so in book 7. I think the movies are just a bit inaccurate is all. Dealing with 1000+ people in the great hall would have been hard. I also think that the common rooms are much bigger than they are in the movies. Hogwarts is a HUGE castle: it would only make sense. if JKR says there are 1000 students, then there are 1000 students.

Posted by Tina on December 7, 2007 6:11 PM

i always been thinking this myself but i do think there is only 250 in the school, it makes sense, sounds like theres more muggles than witch's and wizards, anyway look how many schools we have, i do think depending on the kids in that year there be more or less, as i know that some schools here can differ, as one year theres 40 kids to a class but the other year theres 25, i do think while the war was going on there wasn't many ppl making babies so i bet teddy's (lupins and tonks kid) year was very quiet.

Posted by dracolover from england on December 8, 2007 3:08 PM

yeah, I got 280 too. Cause obviously, there were 5 beds in the boys room. In the girls room probablty too. so: 10 children per house per grade. 10 x 7 x 280. I found that out a long time ago.

Posted by Hermelien griffel from Curacao (Caribbean) on December 9, 2007 1:57 PM

i think there must be more than 70 people in each house. even though they are not all mentioned in the books. why would they need a huge castle if there were only 70 kids in each house?

Posted by siriuslyluvinsirius on December 9, 2007 3:27 PM

I dont know, It makes all sense that there are 280 students with the size of the common room and the classes size and every one knows each other in the ministery (the parents of the kids) so there cant be many wizards in Britain, but on the other hand, Why would they need such a big castle and JK Rowling said there were about 1000, and she created Harry Potter. You make sense, but JKR created the books, she should know better.

Posted by Rui from Lisbon, Portugal on December 10, 2007 07:00 AM

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