24 July 2024

How much does the royal family cost? A breakdown of the key figures

24 July 2024

Here are some of the key figures from the royal accounts for 2023-2024.

– £132 million

The amount of Sovereign Grant the monarchy will receive in 2025/26 because of the Crown Estate wind farm deal profits – a boost of £45.7 million.

– £86.3 million

The total taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant in 2023-24, made up of £51.8 million for the “core” funding and an extra £34.5 million for the reservicing of Buckingham Palace.

– £89.1 million

Official net expenditure by the monarchy, a fall of £18.4 million or 17% from £107.5 million 2022/2023.

– 2

New helicopters the Royal Household will take delivery of in 2024-25.

– £1.096 million

Cost of 170 helicopter journeys made by members of the royal family costing less than £17,000 each.

– £800,000

Amount from the Sovereign Grant spent overall on the Coronation, including resizing the Imperial State Crown and work on the King and Queen’s robes.

– 523

Full-time equivalent staff paid for from the Sovereign Grant, including fixed term contracts, compared with 517 last year.

– £27.9 million

The wage bill for staff, up £800,000 from £27.1 million the year before.

– £2.6 million

Cost of housekeeping and hospitality for the royal household, up £200,000 from £2.4 million.

– £ 4.2 million

Cost of official royal travel, a rise of £300,000 from £3.9 million the previous year.

– £166,557

The most expensive journey – King and Queen’s visit to Kenya by charter flights, along with a separate staff planning visit by scheduled flights.

– £117,942

Cost of Charles and Camilla’s charter flight to Paris and Bordeaux for three-day state visit to France.

– £1.29

Cost per person in the UK of funding the total Sovereign Grant in 2023/24.

– 77p

Cost per person of the “core” part of the Sovereign Grant for official duties, not including funds for the long-term Buckingham Palace works in 2023/24.

– 27,000

Messages from well-wishers to the King and Princess of Wales.

– 31,000

Congratulatory messages for the coronation.

– 138,000

Total number of correspondence to which the Royal Household responded.

– 11.4%

Proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds working for Buckingham Palace, compared with 9.7% in 2022-2023. The target is 14% by 2025.

– 14%

Proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds working for Kensington Palace. (16.3% last year).

– 2,300 

Official engagements by members of the royal family in the UK and overseas, compared with 2,700 last year.

– 105,000

Guests at official residences attending 400 events, compared with 95,000 guests last year at 330 events.

– £19.8 million

Income earned to supplement the Sovereign Grant – an increase of 102% from £9.8 million last year because of return to near pre-Covid  levels of visitors to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.

– £23.6 million

Prince of Wales’s private income from the Duchy of Cornwall estate.

– 66

Number of staff in the Prince and Princess of Wales’s household, rising from 50.

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