Hogwarts is one of eleven magical schools in the world. It is a boarding school, and it provides accommodation to teachers and staff, but also students.
We meet many of Harry’s friends, colleagues, and acquaintances from school throughout the books, but books don’t mention every student by the name, and many of them are not mentioned at all.
We may then wonder, for a school the size of a castle, how many students learn magic at Hogwarts?
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How Many Students are at Hogwarts?
In one interview, J.K. Rowling mentioned that there are about 1000 students at Hogwarts. A few years later, she corrected herself, claiming that math is not her strong suit, she didn’t think it through and that there are about 600 students at Hogwarts.
There are hints of the number of students throughout the books, and even though there is not the exact one, we can agree that there could be between 600 – 1000 students at Hogwarts, but we believe that the number of Hogwarts students is closer to 800.
We see the school from Harry’s point of view. And we know that staying alive and (preferably) out of trouble is more important for Harry than paying attention to the people he doesn’t know or interact with.
When entering the Great Hall for the first time, Harry is overwhelmed by the room. He does notice that there are plenty of students already sitting at their tabes.
The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight.
In the Prisoner of Azkaban, there is mention of 200 people in green and the other 3/4 of the stands wearing scarlet rosettes. Going by the common math, it would make around 800 people in the school. We can only assume that doesn’t include any outsiders and only refers to teachers, staff, and students.
However, some instances, like the number of students in Harry’s year, would make us believe that the number of students at Hogwarts is a lot smaller.
We know, though, that the number of students is not equal from year to year, and the fact that there were only five boys in Harry’s Griffindor class (counting him) and three girls, could be blamed on the tough times during Voldemort’s reign over ten years prior.
Additionally, attendance in Hogwarts is not compulsory, so some of the magical kids are receiving homeschooling.
There are also logistical issues, even though we know that magic can make life a lot easier. The problem we talk about is the size of the dorms and classrooms.
There is also only one teacher per subject, and they have to teach every single student. That’s a lot to handle regarding lesson plans for each class in each year.
Plus, if there were around 20-30 students each year in each house, the joint classes (and even separate dormitories) would be somewhat crowded (no problem for Care of Magical Creatures, but Potions or Herbology would be challenging).
But just as we noted before, magic can make life a lot easier, and considering that Hogwarts is a magical castle, there have to be some charms in place to accommodate all the students.
How Many Students are in Slytherin?
In the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban chapter, The Quidditch Final, we found out that there were 200 Slytherin supporters.
Behind the Slytherin goalposts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very front row, wearing green like everyone else, and a very grim smile.
Considering that Professor Snape was one of those 200 people in green, we can say not all of them were Slytherin students, but there couldn’t be too many non-student spectators during the school Quidditch game, so we can say that the Slytherin house had close to 200 students.
How Many Students are in Gryffindor?
Since being Sorted into Griffindor with other students his age, we know that there are for sure five boys and three girls in Harry’s year in Griffindor.
We never met any other student from Harry’s class during his years in school, so we can assume that there were only eight of them that year.
In normal circumstances, it would be alarming, but considering the state of the wizarding world just before Harry was born, we can blame the First Wizarding War for the low number of students that year, although we believe that more students were attending Hogwarts each year before, and after.
According to the paragraph from the Prisoner of Azkaban, there were 200 Slytherin supporters, but the other three-quarters of the stadium supported Gryffindor. Doing the math, we can expect the same number of Gryffindors as Slytherins on the stands.
How Many Students are in Hufflepuff?
There is no mention of how many Hufflepuff students there are in Hogwarts. We only got to meet a few of them, including the late Cedrik Diggory.
We can only assume that there were almost 200 Hufflepuff students based on the third Harry Potter book chapter.
How Many Students are in Ravenclaw?
As in the case of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, there is no mention of how many Ravenclaw students attend Hogwarts.
However, considering that there could be a similar number of students in each house, we think there are also close to 200 Hufflepuff students at Hogwarts.
How Big is a Hogwarts Class?
Throughout the years of Hogwarts, we met with different class sizes. Depending on the subject they were learning, and the year they were attending, there are between 8 – 31 students per class that we know of.
In Harry’s third year, there are eight people fighting boggart during the Defence Against the Dark Arts class, but he attends Dolores Umbridge’s class with thirty other students in his fifth year.
During the flying lesson in Harry’s first year, which was joined with Slytherins, 20 brooms were waiting for students on the ground. There were also 20 cauldrons in the second-year Potions class shared between Gryffindors and Slytherins.
In Harry’s fifth year, during his argument with Dolores Umbridge during the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Harry spoke in front of “thirty eagerly listening classmates.”
However, we don’t get to know who joined Gryffindors in that class because only Gryffindors got the courage to argue with Dolores.
Conclusion
The Hogwarts castle is a rather big one. It is also magical, so more than likely, it has more space inside than we can see from the outside.
Even though each year has a different number of new students Sorted into each House, Hogwarts is home to over 600 students in total.
For Muggles, the number is somewhat overwhelming, considering there is only one teacher per subject that needs to teach every single student for at least three first years.