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The PotterMore website says

Hogwarts is the most heavily haunted dwelling place in Britain (and this is against stiff competition, as there are more reported ghost sightings/sensings on these damp islands than anywhere else in the world). The castle is a congenial place for ghosts, because the living inhabitants treat their dead friends with tolerance and even affection, no matter how many times they have heard the same old reminiscences.

So what is the spectral population on the school grounds?

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  • 2
    All of the named ones are mentioned in that article. Some others appear in that scene before the sorting in PS, (and maybe at the Deathday party in CoS).
    – ibid
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 17:12
  • 1
    Hogwarts is on an island?
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 22:41
  • 4
    @Azor-Ahai The island is called Great Britain.
    – RichS
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 23:00

1 Answer 1

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18

There are seven named ghosts in the books

  • Nearly Headless Nick: Gryffindor House Ghost
  • The Fat Friar: Hufflepuff House Ghost
  • Helena Ravenclaw: Ravenclaw House Ghost
  • The Bloody Baron: Slytherin House Ghost
  • Professor Binns: History of Magic teacher
  • Moaning Myrtle: Basilisk victim
  • Sir Patrick: Head of the Headless Hunt

We also know that there are at least 20 that are around continually.

About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to each other and hardly glancing at the first-years.
Philosopher's Stone - Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat

And potentially upwards of hundreds.

The dungeon was full of hundreds of pearly-white, translucent people, mostly drifting around a crowded dance floor, waltzing to the dreadful, quavering sound of thirty musical saws, played by an orchestra on a black-draped platform.
Chamber of Secrets - Chapter 8: The Deathday Party

(Though some of the attendees may have been invited from outside Hogwarts)

And then of course you have Peeves, who while not a ghost, is certainly spectral.

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    I don't recall there being any definitive mention of the members of the headless hunt actually living at Hogwarts. I had gotten the impression that they were visiting. Also, we don't hear any mention of lots of ghosts floating around.
    – user87732
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 20:16
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    @alex.common True enough. I always assumed they didn't live at Hogwarts, but nothing confirms one way or this other. In terms of ghosts floating around, text searches show the word "ghost(s)" showing up a couple dozen times each book, it's just that we only ever hear their specific names a couple times.
    – amflare
    Commented Aug 10, 2017 at 20:21
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    While the 20 ghosts were seen on a special day as well (the day the students arrived for a new year at school), it does seem likely they were Hogwarts residents, as they were discussing Peeves.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 22:29

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