The Muggle-Born Population

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

In some interview, J.K. Rowling apparently said that Britain's wizarding population is roughly divided into 25% muggle-born, 50% half-blood, and 25% pureblood. However, while JKR may have said that 25% of witches and wizards are muggle-born, this is not what she has actually shown in canon.

In Harry's year at Hogwarts, there are only two confirmed muggle-born students in canon: Hermione Granger and Justin Finch-Fletchley. JKR's early class list also shows Hannah Abbott and Terry Boot as muggle-borns, but she apparently later either forgot this or changed her mind, for we learn in DH that some of Hannah's family is buried in a wizarding cemetery, and Terry was able to attend Hogwarts when Voldemort was in control. JKR originally imagined Harry's class as having 40 students, but only 30 students are ever mentioned in canon, and only 25 are mentioned elsewhere besides the sorting ceremony. 2 out of 40 students would mean that 5% of the class is definitely muggle-born. 2 out of 30 would mean that 6.66% is muggle-born. 2 out of 25 would make 8% of the class muggle-born. Any of these percentages is much lower than 25%.

(Note: Apparently I can't count, so I've had to change these percentages a few times. Hopefully they're correct now.)

Furthermore, (as far as I can remember) we only meet 3 other muggle-born students at Hogwarts: Penelope Clearwater and the two Creevey Brothers. And we only know of three muggle-borns from the previous generation: Lily Evans, Ted Tonks, and Dirk Cresswell. Again, these numbers suggest that the percentage of wizards and witches who are muggle-born is much lower than 25%

ETA: Oryx reminded me Add Mary McDonalds and the Mary who was on trial during the trio's Ministry invasion (though the two may be the same person, under her maiden and married names).

Another sign of a low percentage of muggle-borns is the WW's ignorance of muggle culture and technology. If muggle-borns were really 25% of the wizarding population, I believe that they would have had significantly more influence on wizarding culture. Wizards would have assimilated and adapted more muggle sports, muggle board games, film, television, etc.

The data I used for these calculations can be found here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0Asq6Ul6gdxBCdDlMRHoxU0NVaHA5SXQtQzRiRFI0Smc&output=html If the blood status is in parentheses, that means it was shown that way in JKR's notes, but unverified or contradicted in canon.

Comments

[600ants.livejournal.com]

She worked with these data:

Purebloods: Malfoy (S), Crabbe (S), Goyle (S), Parkinson (S), Greengrass (S), Longbottom (G), Weasley (G), Brown (G), MacDougal (R), Macmillan (H)

Halfbloods: Bulstrode (S), Potter (G), Finnigan (G), Thomas (G), Brocklehurst (R), Li (R), Abbott (H), Bones (H), Hopkins (H)

Muggleborns: Granger (G), Finch-Fletchley (H)

Unknown: Davis (S), “a girl with glasses“ (S), Parvati Patil (G), Padma Patil (R), Dunbar (G), “a ginger girl” (G), Turpin (R), Corner (R), Boot (R), Goldstein (R), Jones (H), Leanne (H)

Note: The Patil twins and Fay Dunbar are sorted as unknown, but given they knew Pansy before they started Hogwarts and some of their comments suggest they aren't familiar with Muggle technology etc., they must be either half- or purebloods. Same goes for Tracey Davis, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein and Zacharias Smith.

So out of the total of 33 there are 10 purebloods, 9 halfbloods, 2 muggleborns and 12 students of unknown blood status (8 of whom are most likely half- or purebloods.)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Who is Fay Dunbar? The name is neither in the books nor in the infamous class list, as far as I can see. And the only Leanne we know in canon is Katie Bell's friend, so probably a Gryff from the year above Harry.

Where are the mentions of the Slytherin girl with glasses or Gryffindor ginger girl? (At least in which chapter are they mentioned?)

[600ants.livejournal.com]

I've no idea, I was just citing the information my friend gave me. And they aren't exactly important anyway, are they, since we don't know their blood status and they weren't included in the calculation...

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, I think they are your friend's characters :)

[600ants.livejournal.com]

LOL are not. It took me about five seconds to look them up in HP wikia. All were mentioned in movie, videogame or interviews.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Videogames? That's no canon. Neither are movies. They aren't in the Lexicon and its definition of canon is a tad broad (includes interviews).

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Depends on one's definition of canon, I suppose. I usually try to stick solely with the books, but I can see why somebody doesn't. After all, strictly speaking, the infamous AD/GG isn't canon either. But I digress. If you're interested, see danny_sparks's comments for more relevant remarks and suggestions concerning the table.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Agreed, AD/GG is as canon as HP/DM. It's a fun fan interpretation.

Hannah Abbott is an interesting case. According to the class list, she was supposed to be Muggle-born. According to interview, she was pureblood in Rowling's head. When fans confronted her with the contradiction she made her half-blood in interview. So I don't take anything outside the books as canon, though some of it may indicate Rowling's thought process at some time point or other.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

It's Actually a total of 34 students, if you include Zacharias Smith on this list.

I don't quite understand how your friend settled on this list.

It looks like she included characters that appear in the films and video games. Leanne and Fay Dunbar are both in the films. And there's also a girl with glasses in Slytherin in the films.

Hopkins, Jones, and Li are three of the characters that are on the class list, but not in canon. But she didn't include the other 5 shown on the class list.

She also left out Moon and Perks, who were named in the sorting ceremony.

Zabini and Nott are also missing from this list.

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Oh, plus Tracey Davis is on the class list but not in canon.

Actually, I just realized that I had included Tracey Davis as being in canon, when she's not. That changes the results of my calculations slightly.

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Zabini and Nott are also missing from this list.

Yeah, I noticed that too when I first saw the table, but forgot to ask her about it later. The percentage doesn't seem perfectly correct, either. It'd need some polishing and proof-reading, but I think the table is something one can work with when trying to determine the structure of wizarding society, because Harry's year is the most complete sample we have. I won't be the one to correct the mistakes, though, I'm not nearly enough of an expert. :p

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Oh, one more thing, Hopkins, Jones, Davis and Li are also not in the films or games. They're only on the class list. So I'm not sure why she included four of the students who are on the class list but not in canon but not the other 5.

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Haha, I don't think I'll be able to tell you why she did this or that. My guess is, she simply wrote down all the caracters she remembered, while apparently forgetting some and adding others without realizing they weren't mentioned in the books. As I said at the begging, she was researching for a fic, and probably didn't pay it that much attention. *shrugs*

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

Oh I see. This is the table I made when I was writing this post. If the blood status is in parenthesis, that means that's how it was indicated in JKR's notes, but not verified in canon.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?hl=en&hl=en&key=0Asq6Ul6gdxBCdDlMRHoxU0NVaHA5SXQtQzRiRFI0Smc&output=html

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the table is a thing of beauty! :) Good work! *memories*