The Buckingham Palace balcony told its own story at this year’s Trooping the Colour.
It was once a crowded royal showcase that has been pared down to a carefully curated line-up of senior working royals, Wales’ children and a single extra family member.
The royal family lacks working hands, and the consequences will be impossible to ignore.
By 2025, only 10 working royals carried the weight of the monarchy.
Together, they completed 2,459 official engagements, a sharp drop from 2018, when 16 working royals undertook almost 4,000 duties. The decline is not about engagement; it’s about capacity.
The figures also reveal a demographic pressure. The average age of today’s working royals is close to 70, with six of them now in their eighties responsible for around two-thirds of all appearances.
King Charles and Princess Anne continue to lead the workload, despite being well past the typical retirement age.
William and Kate account for a much smaller proportion of health considerations, family priorities and a conscious effort to pace their roles while raising their children.
The problem is that there simply aren’t enough younger royals ready to step up.
Recent health setbacks across the family revealed how fragile the system has become. Reduced schedules, hospital stays and reduced travel highlighted the lack of flexibility within the current model.
The solutions are limited and risky. Cutting back on royal duties could weaken long-standing ties with charities and communities.
Expanding the labor list would require years of policy aimed at keeping the monarchy lean, and would likely require financial support for relatives leaving private careers.
Prince George and his siblings are still years away from full-time royal life, leaving a long stretch for the institution to cope with fewer faces and growing expectations.
