Population issues

[longstrider.livejournal.com]

I'm reposting this from the previous thread as it isn't really related to the original topic and that thread is now humongous. I've made a few additions.

I was actually thinking about the camps and the different classes of people in Voldie's England. (Has it been established what portion of the Isles are behind the wards? Is it just Britian, B & Scotland, B & S & Wales or does it include Ireland as well?) I assume at minimum B&S and Seamus's presence would seem to indicate Ireland as well.

We have 4 to 7 classes of people, (1)Pure bloods, blood traitors, those of 'mixed' heritage but several generations back, (2)half-bloods, (3)muggle-born, (4)muggles and squibs.

A couple assumptions/questions here. In canon the muggle to wizard ratio is HUGE (UK pop minus N Ireland in 1981 was ~55,000,000, Ireland and N Ireland add another 3.7 million & even the most generous estimates of wizarding pop are in the 10,000 range unless JKR ignored hundreds of students at Hogwarts or failed to mention multiple other schools in the UK) multiple 1000s to 1 at best for wizards, specifically 5,900:1. If those numbers hold and there hasn't already been a massive slaughter/exodus of muggles this is a logistical problem of control so those in power need to be looking for an intermediary population to control the muggles or even more draconian population controls. When I say massive I mean MASSIVE, 90% reduction in muggle population still leaves the ratio at a barely manageable 600:1. Modern high-tech prisons have a prisoner to guard ratio of 4 or 5 to 1. I tried to find some numbers for the British in Imperial India, but couldn't. Found lots of over all and breakdowns of the native population but no numbers for Anglo or British born. And that's a massively different situation, not camps, very large intermediary population, old government basically coopted and then repeatedly reworked. The best I could find is 45 million in the British Isles and 256 million 'total souls' in India.

However in Wizarding Britian I see no intermediary population for them to coopt. Squibs haven't been touched on as to there treatment (but the absence of Flich speaks volumes,) Half-bloods are being integrated into the wizard population (see numerous examples in the journals,) and the most obvious choice, muggle-borns, is verboten by the PTB. Along with this we've seen no indication of a class of muggle 'foremen' or collaborators given special privileges. Arthur works with a 'mayor' but it really looks like the exception rather than the norm. There's nothing on the order of the Brahmans & Rajputs. This means (barring the aforementioned draconian population reductions something higher than 95%, quite possibly higher than 99%) that Voldie's regime is headed for problems, see real world British Imperial India & Apartheid South Africa.

Now we may just be hand waving the population problems (as JKR did, it's hard to reconcile Hogwarts student numbers and the Quidditch Cup audience numbers and well we're all familiar with her maths... issues) or working with different world assumptions or it's just not plot relevant so it's being ignored but my analytical brain and world building experience makes me want to poke at this sort of thing.

PS there's some really disturbing stuff out there from that era produced by the British, 'Aryan and higher class natives' is just the beginning.

Comments

[lapin-agile.livejournal.com]

We should add disease to organized extermination as a population-reducer. Arthur testifies that there have been terrible epidemics that have ripped through the camps.

I still think you're right that there must still be a huge disparity of population.



But now, maybe, I'll try not to think about it too much!