What Harry Potter House Does Your Country Belong To?

The Harry Potter Special was arguably one of the most awaited releases this winter, with a huge spike in Google searches and millions of people streaming. Being such a worldwide phenomenon, some boffins in the UK have decided to take deep dive into the data and reveal which Hogwarts houses every US state, UK city and world country would belong to.

“What Harry Potter House Am I” accounts for 58,000 searches every month, hence whey the UK pop culture retailer Lost Universe said they decided to help fans answer the burning question on a global scale. Their research included sales data on the number of house specific Harry Potter merchandise sold and to backup their data, sentiment analysis was used to improve the accuracy of their results.

More info: lostuniverse.com

World data suggests that almost half of the world population should be in Hufflepuff (46%), while 41% should be in Slytherin. Despite the main heroes being placed in Gryffindor, only 27% of the world would belong in this house, including Australia, the UK, Ukraine and South Africa. Even Ravenclaw has a higher belonging percentage (29%) than Gryffindor, with countries such as Portugal, Japan and Chile. Most notably, The UK, USA, and Russia could all be placed in either Gryffindor or Slytherin House, while China is one of the few countries that is only Slytherin. Germany and France both belong in Ravenclaw, whereas Canada is a clear Hufflepuff.

In the UK, the data revealed even which are the UK capitals of each house. Doncaster appeared to be the Gryffindor capital, Birmingham was clearly the Slytherin capital, while Southampton represented the Ravenclaw, and Sheffield the Hufflepuffs. According to a government report, the vast majority of Harry Potter fans would prefer to belong in the Gryffindor house, while only 8% would choose the Slytherins. Sales and sentiment data however suggests otherwise. Despite the country on the whole belonging to the Gryffindor house, only 40% of cities would actually be sent there by the sorting hat. Only 1 in 5 of the UK would be sent to Hufflepuff and 8% to Ravenclaw. Nonetheless, the house of cunning, ambition and determination seems to win with the second highest percentage, despite unpopular opinion – 32% of UK cities belong to the Slytherin House.

With the US being such a huge country, naturally the division of the houses was higher than in other places. States that tend to have the same political colours also seem to be belonging to the same Harry Potter houses, such as California with New Mexico and Colorado, all belonging in Gryffindor alongside Harry, Ron and Hermione. Despite being difficult to choose an overarching house for the whole of US, the data showed that the US houses the highest numbers were Gryffindors and Slytherins.