If 'thousands of willing hands' constituted 10% of the population, as we can perhaps imagine such a popular effort doing, then that would mean a population of 10,000's, perhaps anywhere from 30,000 - 100,000. All these point to a relatively low figure for the population of the Shire. Now there were thousands of willing hands of all ages.' We also have the seeming description of the Shire as a place nowhere densely packed with Hobbits and the seeming lack of any major towns or centres of population. We even have a few references to thousands of Hobbits, as in the following passage about Sam's work to repair the Shire - 'Hobbits can work like bees when in the mood and the need comes on them. We have numerous references to groups of 'hundreds' of Hobbits: at Bilbo's party, with the implication this was a sizeable part of the local population and the hundreds of hobbits who quickly rallied to fight the Ruffians in the 'Scouring of the Shire'. What we do have is the size of the Shire, some idea about roughly how densely it was settled, and various contextual references to the numbers of Hobbits. The Hobbits not having an army we have no military figures that we could use as a basis to estimate the total population, as I did for Gondor and Rohan.

Friendly, idyllic home of the friendly Hobbits. Probably the largest of the communities in Eriador is also the most familiar to any fan of Middle Earth: the Shire.

Lindon lord of the rings