Number of Elves

[Witch King of Angmar]

What was the number of Elves at the time of the War of the Ring?

[Gwaihir the Windlord]

No-one really knows. I could hazard a guess at probably a few hundred thousand, perhaps almost a million, predominantly in Lindon and Mirkwood. In Rivendell and Lorien, four or five tens of thousand each. Of course, that’s just an educated guess, as the number is unknown.

[Elrian]

There had to be quite a few in Rivendell during the 3rd age if Glofindal could bring out an army of 10,000 to fight in the Battle of Fornost. During the second seige against Rivendell, Lorien sent a troop of 3,000 to aid them, they don't seem to be as numerous. I don't remember if it mentioned how many Thranduil brought to the Battle of 5 armies, and Lindon I would say was quite populace since that was where GilGilad dwelt.

[Orald]

Michael Martiniez wrote an essay on the numbers of the elves over at Suite 101. and we have a few threads on it here.[Just How Many Elves? is the only one I could find and it is of course very short, but there are a few others

[Tarlondeion Of Gondolin]

how many elves do u think lived in Gondolin and how many in Nargathrond?

[Mhoram]

But now a cry went up, passing up the wind from the south from vale to vale, and Elves and Men lifted their voices in wonder and joy. For unsummoned and unlooked for Turgon had opened the leaguer of Gondolin, and was come with an army ten thousand strong, with bright mail and long swords and spears like a forest. Then when Fingon heard afar the great trumpet of Turgon his brother, the shadow passed and his heart was uplifted, and he shouted aloud: 'Utúlie'n aurë! Aiya Eldalië ar Atanatári, utúlie'n aurë! The day has come! Behold, people of the Eldar and Fathers of Men, the day has come!'

That's the only note on how many were in Gondolin that I can come up with at the moment.

[Dior]

I don't think there were millions or hundreds of thousands at all. At the battle of the 5 armies Thranduil only brought out less than 2 thousand elves as stated in the Hobbit and the Atlas of Middle Earth, and he must have pretty much used most of his warriors. Also, if in the first age, at the time of the elves dominance, Gondolin, which was the greatest elven city, could only turn out 10,000 elves for the Fifth Battle, than the rest of the elven cities must've not contained more than 20,000 elves, and thats in the time of their dominance.

[Orald]

You assume too much. The 10,000 Gondolindrim only includes men of age, leaving the numbers of women and children out(not to mention all of those conscientious objectors), granted there probably aren't that many children, but there are probably the same numbers of women elves as males, so Gondolin grows to at least 20,000. Plus, Doriath was not a city nor Hithlum nor Balar, meaning the numbers of elve could have been well over 100,000 in Middle-Earth. At the time of the Last Alliance there would have been far fewer elves, but still a large number, especially at the Grey Havens and Hollin.

[Mhoram]

And there would be warriors left behind to guard the cities. It's really just silly to even try to guess, and besides that, fairly pointless.

[Haldir]

All they say is:
"Last Alliance was thousands of Men and Elves..."

[Bruce MacCulloch]

All they say is:
"Last Alliance was thousands of Men and Elves..."

All who says?

[Dior]

I was just trying to make the point that at the time of the War of the Ring, there were definately not hundreds of thousands of elves in middle earth. I mean, how many do you think really remained in Lindon after the last alliance and all the sailing of the grey ships, and at Rivendell and Lorien. Maybe in Mirkwood, Thranduil ruled many more, but if at the Battle of the Five Armies he only had less than 2000, there were probably only at most, 5 or 6000 in Mirkwood.