How many students are at Hogwarts?
Have you ever asked yourself how many students visit Hogwarts each year? Some have estimated the cost of studying at Hogwarts, or the price of the wizarding real estate market, or even the Gallions to Muggle money exchange rate.
But what about the number of students attending Hogwarts each year? Is it in the order of hundreds or thousands?
Before the number of students was established, there were two schools of thought: those who claimed there were between 800 and 1000 students, and those who aimed for a figure of around 280 to 300 students.
The only thing sure was that there were 12 teachers in the school, that J.K. Rowling is very bad at math, and that numbers are rare – but not that many!
Inaccurate numbers will be shown in italics, while accurate numbers will be shown in bold.
Arguments for the 800 students count
There are 200 students supporting Slytherin at a Quidditch match in HP3. As Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are the remaining houses, and that this number includes only Slytherin, then Hogwarts has 200 X 4 = 800 students.
Arguments for the 280-300 students
There are 40 students in Harry’s year. As was the case 7 years ago at Hogwarts, there must be about 280 students at the castle (40 X 7), each year keeping a standard size. The following figures are a consequence of the thinking below.
20 brooms are waiting for the first-year students of Gryffindor and Slytherin for their first flying lesson in HP1.
20 cauldrons are used for a double potions lesson (Gryffindor and Slytherin), same calculation.
For a double course of herbology (Gryffindor and Slytherin) professor Pomona Sprout provided 20 pairs of earmuffs. Same calculation.
In Harry’s year, We know that 5 Gryffindor boys share each dormitory and 3 Gryffindor girls, plus two whose names are not known in the girl aisle. That makes 10 Gryffindor per year.
Logic dictates that:
12 teachers cannot physically teach 800 students, even with time travel, when you know the class schedules at Hogwarts.
The sorting hat ceremony takes as much time as a brief conversation between Harry and McGonagall, followed by a brief conversation between Hermione and McGonagall.
On this occasion, Harry and Hermione miss the sorting ceremony, the Sorting Hat song, and the installation of the students… but come back when Dumbledore hasn’t even started his speech yet! They return quickly, suggesting that there are only a few students to be sorted.
The scholars calculations
HOGWARTS EXPRESS TREATS:
We know that the train leaves at 11 am and that in HP3, where Lupin’s cabin is at the far end of the train, the candy cart arrives at 1 pm, after 120 minutes of travel.
Let’s estimate that it takes 2 minutes 30 to serve each cabin on average, that is 48 cabins in total. Each booth can hold 6 students, giving a total of 288 potential students on the train (48×6).
The carriages:
We are told in the stories that there are about 100, this is an approximation. There are 4 students per carriage. If there are precisely 100 carriages, we get the figure of 400 students.
If there are only 70 carriages (easily designated as “a hundred”), that makes 280 students. Let’s not forget that a small number of students make the trip by boat.
In any case, if there were 1000 students at Hogwarts, even with 100 carriages, half of them would have difficulty getting from the station to the castle.
The hundred table for 12 at the Yule Ball:
Assuming there are 800 students at Hogwarts. That means that there are about 500 Hogwarts students at the ball, by a simple calculation: (200 Slytherin students/7) X 4 = 114 students in one year at Hogwarts.
Only years 4 to 7 attend the ball (x 4), plus Ginny invited by Neville, 12 Hogwarts teachers, Filch, Mrs. Pince, Mrs. Sprout, Karkaroff, Mrs. Maxime, the other four jury members and about 60 students from Durmstrang and Beauxbâtons… that’s 538 people in the room!
In conclusion, even with 1000 students at Hogwarts, half the tables would be unoccupied!
Same calculation with 280 students at Hogwarts: 262 people present. The closest multiple of 12 is 264, which gives 22 tables, a much more credible figure. After all, J.K. tends to exaggerate when she wants to give an idea of importance.
Conclusion
If the castle is described as huge, it’s probably because of its relatively small population. Most figures suggest that there are about 280 students at Hogwarts, without taking into account repetition or small population variations.
