Other British Wizarding Schools?

[pica_scribit]

This is sort of an expanded canon question, but has JKR ever confirmed or hinted at the existence of any other school(s) of magic in Britain, apart from Hogwarts? I'm trying to estimate the total population of Wizarding Britain, and knowing whether there are more witches and wizards than just the ones who went to Hogwarts would really help.

Comments

[tabular_rasa]

Back in like 2004 on her website JKR answered a question about Hogwarts confirming that all wizard children in Britain are eligible for Hogwarts, so it seems there's nothing like school districts where students are assigned by region or anything like that.

That doesn't necessarily preclude alternate schools they could elect to attend instead, but if they do exist they must not be very well known, well-attended, or prestigious as Harry never meets a British wizard who attended anything other than Hogwarts. There may be the possibility of homeschooled wizards, too, but again, doesn't seem to be a particularly popular or practical option for most wizarding families as we don't hear much of it.

There is apparently the option for British wizards to study abroad, too. In GoF Draco Malfoy mentions that his parents considered sending him to Durmstrang but ultimately decided it was too far away. Again, no way of knowing how popular this is, but it's apparently an option.

[snorkackcatcher]

I think the answer is a pretty definite "no". See DH chapter 11 when Lupin is talking to the Trio in 12GP: he says that attendance at Hogwarts is now "compulsory for every young witch and wizard ... of course, nearly every witch and wizard in Britain has been educated at Hogwarts, but their parents had the right to teach them at home or send them abroad if they preferred".

I think the most you could plausibly have would be a very small, very exclusive private school for a handful of children from extreme pureblood families as an alternative to home tutoring, but such a thing was never mentioned -- if even the Malfoys didn't consider that option, there's unlikely to be such a thing available.

As for estimating the total population, JKR said about 3,000 -- but that seems to be an "oh dear, maths" moment. The figure is pretty much impossible to reconcile with the institutions mentioned in the books -- e.g. Quidditch matches at Hogwarts get crowds of several hundred. A reasonable guess based on Hogwarts numbers might be more like 30,000

[malinbe]

I am reasonably sure that Jo has said on interviews that Hogwarts is the only school in Britain, and that the only alternatives are homeschooling or studying abroad. To attempt to estimate the population of Wizarding Britain is to accept that she is really bad at maths.
To explain the small size of Harry's class some people have proposed that VWI took a lot of young people who would've had children around that time. Of course there are absolutely no indications in canon that Harry has ever noticed that the years below him have a greater amount of children than his, but if you REALLY care about it, you can make it work like that.