The year in royal work: Which months are busiest?
Which months are busiest (or not) is the focus of Day 14 of my year-end work analysis
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The year in royal work
Day 1: Princess Alexandra and the Duke of Kent
Day 2: The Duchess of Gloucester
Day 3: The Duke of Gloucester
Day 4: Princess Anne
Day 5: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh
Day 6: Prince Edward
Day 7: Kate, Princess of Wales
Day 8: Prince William
Day 9: Queen Camilla
Day 10: King Charles III
Day 11: Type of work
Day 12: Investitures
Day 13: Charity work
WHEN ROYALS WORK, MONTHLY EDITION
After posts about WHO does royal work, and WHAT type of work they do, it’s now time for the WHEN section of my year-end work opus, starting with monthly data.
As we near the end of 2024, the overall decrease in royal work is coming into focus. As of mid-December, the current rota of working royals did 23 percent fewer engagements per month than they did two years ago.
I knew the data was going to be a lot lower than usual in January, when both King Charles III and Kate, Princess of Wales, went into hospital. Then came word that they were both starting treatment for cancer. Even when the King returned to public-facing duties, the sovereign, usually one of the hardest working royals, had to reduce his workload. Kate, who had averaged 120 engagements a year did only 13 to date this year.
Only three months broke the 200 engagement mark — May, October, and November. By comparison, there were three months in 2022 that broke the 300 engagement mark, while 2023 had one month over 300 and six with more than 200 engagements.
There were only two months in 2024 in which the working royals completed more engagements than they did in 2023 — August, a usually slow month that had a lot more activity thanks to the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, and October, when King Charles and Queen Camilla were on their only foreign visit of the year, to Australia and Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
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