How much does the royal family cost? A breakdown of the key figures
Some 2,300 official royal engagements were carried out in the UK and overseas despite the health challenges of the royal family over the past year.
![Buckingham Palace has released the annual Sovereign Grant accounts which details its funding (Anthony Devlin/PA)](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/24/00/c3ec7448f996354d21b7449b053e8947Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzIxODQyNTk3-2.26379416.jpg)
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Louise Thomas
Editor
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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