How Many Words In A Harry Potter Book? [A Word Count Guide]

Since the first Harry Potter book was released in 1997, more than 500 million copies have been sold, making them some of the best-selling books ever published.

Since then, the fictional universe that the books created has gained popularity all over the world and is still well-known today, more than 25 years after the publication of the first book.

JK Rowling created a world that a whole generation of children grew up with, and still love to this day, as well as inviting new generations to experience the magic.

With 7 novels, 8 movies, 6 short stories, 2 theme parks, and a play, the Harry Potter universe just continues to expand.

The 7 novels were what brought the world of Harry Potter into the limelight.

The original series wrapped up back in 2007, yet they are still being bought and read endlessly to this day.

How long would it take the average person to read a Harry Potter book? It depends on which book you choose to read, as some are a lot longer than others.

One thing is for certain: if you were to combine all 7 books, there would be a lot of books to read.

In this article, we will look at how many words are in each Harry Potter book, what the average word count is in the whole series, and how they compare to other YA series that came out around that time.

So, let’s get started.

How Many Books Are in The ‘Harry Potter’ Series?

The main Harry Potter series of novels began when Rowling published ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ – or, ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone’ – in 1997, and concluded when she released ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ in 2007.

Within a short span of a decade, Rowling had established an entire universe, as well as beginning and concluding the adventures of a young Harry Potter during his time at Hogwarts.

In the original series, there were 7 books altogether:

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2005)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)

If you were to add up every single page of every single book in the original Harry Potter series, it would equal to 4,100 pages altogether. That’s a lot of reading!

The Word Count For Each ‘Harry Potter’ Book

Between the 7 novels included in the original Harry Potter series, there were a lot of words to be read.

However, as you will notice while reading our list, some of the books were much longer than others. 

Rowling started off writing shorter books, and went on to add many more pages to each story as the series progressed.

Here are the word counts for each of the Harry Potter books.

Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s/Sorcerer’s Stone (1997)

The first novel of the series, The Philosopher’s Stone, was the shortest book of the entire series, only containing 309 pages.

Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone contains 76,944 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

The second book in the series was released only a year after the first, and was only 32 pages longer, with 341 pages.

Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets contains 85,141 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban

As the series got darker, the third novel was a lot longer than the previous two, containing 435 pages.

Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban contains 107,253 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

The four entry to the series was a lot longer than its predecessors as it gradually became a more mature series for older readers, with 734 pages.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire contains 190,637 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix

The fifth entry in the series is not only the longest book in the series up to this point, but is actually the longest book in the entire series, with 870 pages.

Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix contains 257,045 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

The sixth book in the series was a lot shorter than its predecessor, yet still one of the longer books in the series, with 652 pages.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince contains 168,293 words altogether.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

The seventh and final novel in the Harry Potter series is the second-longest book in the series, second to The Order of The Phoenix, with 759 pages.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows contains 198,227 words altogether.

The Average Word Count For The ‘Harry Potter’ Series

So, as you can see, it can be difficult to answer the question, ‘how many words are in a Harry Potter book?’ with a straightforward answer.

Each book has a different length, so it would be impossible to say an exact number.

The word count of all seven books together is 1,084,170, and the average word count of a single Harry Potter book would be, roughly, 154,881 words.

Of course, you need to take into consideration that the first two books of the series were both under 100,000 words, and the longest novel in the series contained 257,045 words… so, each book has very different, incomparable lengths and word counts.

Final Thoughts

In the entirety of the Harry Potter series, there are 1,084,170 words spread between the 7 novels. 

There is an average count of 154,881 words in a Harry Potter book, although some of them have a lot more, and some have a lot less. 

The first two books in the series have less than 100,00 words, but as the series progresses, the word count increases significantly, with the longest novel of the series – Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix – containing a whopping 257,045 words.

It can be difficult to give a definite number of words for a single Harry Potter novel, as each one differs so greatly in length, but, as a rough indication, there are around 150,000 words in your average Harry Potter book.

We hope you found this article helpful.