How Many Words Are In The Harry Potter Series

The Harry Potter series past J.K. Rowling are amid the most popular book series of all times amidst people of all ages. Millions of copies take been sold in multiple countries and the books accept been translated into many different languages. They have been adapted into eight feature films, each of which has grossed millions of dollars at the box office.

The eight Harry Potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words! — The viii Harry Potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words!

In this article, nosotros're going to look at how many words are in the Harry Potter serial. We are also going to look at how Harry Potter is comparable to other immature adult novels in regards to word count.

Comparison of Each Book in the Series

First, we'll look at the number of words for each book in the series. The commencement volume, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, has 76,944 words. It has fewer words than the other six books, making it the shortest book in the series. Since this was the first book, Rowling had more time to edit the book and brand the writing more concise. Plus, she probably didn't want to make the first book besides long, or the publisher might not have accepted it. She was a new author at that point. Publishers usually don't accept long novels from beginning-time authors.

In comparison, each of the other half dozen books are longer, likely due to the initial success of the Philosophers's Stone, which within its first 2 years had sold more than 300,000 copies in the U.One thousand. alone. Co-ordinate to Wikipedia, the American version, "Harry Potter and the Wizard'southward Rock" remained on the New York Time's bestseller list for "79 consecutive weeks."

Due to the sales of the offset volume, the publishers—Bloomsbury for the British version and Scholastic for the American version—wanted more books about the earth of Harry Potter from Rowling. They were willing to take longer books considering they knew to follow upward books would sell well. The word count figures for the other vi books, in order:

Harry Potter and the Wizard'due south Stone: 76,944 words.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: 85,141 words.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 107,253 words.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Burn: 190,637 words.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 257,045 words.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: 168,923 words.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 198,227 words.

As y'all tin see, books two through v go progressively longer. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest volume in the series. Why? J.K. Rowling did an interview with Harry Potter fan site The Leaky Cauldron and Mugglenet in July 2005. One of the things she talked most was how she feels the fifth book is overly long, only challenges "anyone to detect the obvious place to cut."

She goes on to state that in the fifth volume, she "had to movement Harry effectually a lot, physically. There were places he had to become he had never been before, and that took time—to get him in that location, to become him abroad." In that location were new elements in the fifth book that had not been in the previous four books. Overall, Rowling couldn't pinpoint which subplots could be left out to brand Guild of the Phoenix shorter. She felt what was in there was needed.

The last two books are slightly shorter but still longer than the first books in the serial. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is 119.54% longer than the beginning book. The last volume in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is 157.63% longer than the first volume. In full, all seven Harry Potter books contain i,084,170 words. Those 1,084,170 words take up vi,095 pages.

Comparing to Other Young Adult Books

If you've read our related article on how many words are in a novel you'll recall that the typical word count for a novel according to is 80,000 to 109,000 words. For novels specifically in the young adult genre, the typical range is between 55,000 – 79,999 words. Only the showtime book of the Harry Potter Series falls within that range.

Still, when yous consider that the Harry Potter series falls within the fantasy genre, it makes sense that the books are longer than other young developed novels. There is a lot of worldbuilding in Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling had to come up up with the backgrounds for each significant graphic symbol. Typically, young adult fantasy novels tin can run 80,000 words or more.

What is the difference in word count between the Harry Potter Series and the Hunger Games Trilogy? Well, the full give-and-take count for all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy is 301,583 words. Here is that number broken downwardly per book:

Hunger Games: 99,750 words.
Hunger Games: Catching Fire: 101,564 words.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay: 100,269 words.

Of course, the whole Harry Potter serial has more words because it has four more books. But, let'southward compare the commencement iii books of the Harry Potter serial to the Hunger Games trilogy. The total for the first three Harry Potter books is 269,338 words. That is 11% less than the Hunger Games trilogy.

Overall, the Harry Potter serial has over a one thousand thousand words. That's more words than nigh other young developed volume series. Even the private books in the series accept more words than boilerplate. Likewise, millions of people, immature and erstwhile alike, who have read these books accept read over a million words. And that is a dandy thing.