The Royal Family have made millions of headlines this year—following reports that King Charles’ estate has allegedly profited allegedly from unclaimed inheritances to the bombshell release of Omid Scobie’s tell-all novel Endgame—with global searches for the monarchy soaring by 317% in the lead up to the coronation.1
With this in mind, a Digital PR agency sourced the number of royal engagements (not including official meetings) for each working member of the royal family using The Court Circular to ultimately uncover the hardest working members of the Royal Family in 2023.
Key findings:
- Princess Anne is the hardest working royal for the third year in a row, with 212 royal engagements, 33% more engagements than her younger brother Prince Edward
- King Charles III is the second hardest working royal of 2023, with 197 monarchical appointments, 79% more than William, The Prince of Wales (110)
- Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, places third with 141 royal commitments, 19% more than wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh who places fourth
- Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, had the largest increase in the number of royal engagements; rising by 12% from 100 to 113 between 2022-2023
The results: The hardest working member of the royal family in 2023
| Rank | Royal family member | Total yearly royal engagements
in 2023 |
Total yearly royal engagements
in 2022 |
Change in royal engagements 2022-2023 |
| 1. | Princess Anne (The Princess Royal) | 212 | 214 | -1% |
| 2. | King Charles III | 197 | 181 | 8% |
| 3. | Prince Edward (Duke of Edinburgh) | 141 | 143 | -1% |
| 4. | Sophie (Duchess of Edinburgh) | 114 | 138 | -21% |
| 5. | Prince Richard (The Duke of Gloucester) | 113 | 100 | 12% |
| 6. | Wiliam (The Prince of Wales) | 110 | 126 | -15% |
| 7. | Camilla (Queen Consort) | 101 | 102 | -1% |
| =8. | Catherine (The Princess of Wales) | 92 | 90 | 2% |
| =8. | Birgitte (The Duchess of Gloucester) | 92 | 94 | -2% |
| 10. | Prince Edward (The Duke of Kent) | 64 | 78 | -22% |
Princess Anne is the hardest working member of the royal family
The Digital PR agency can reveal that Princess Anne is the hardest working member of the royal family, having had 212 royal engagements throughout 2023. This is Princess Anne’s third year of being crowned the hardest working royal, with 120 more engagements than Birgitte—The Duchess of Gloucester—who ranks ninth.2 March was Princess Anne’s busiest month, with an impressive 26 engagements taking place, 5 more than King Charles in second place (21). In 2023, Princess Anne had 7% more royal engagements than King Charles and 33% more than her younger brother Prince Edward in third place.
King Charles III ranks in second place, having taken part in 197 royal engagements in 2023, most of which have been in accordance with his duties as King. This is 84 more engagements than Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester, who ranks in fifth place (113). May and November were the King’s busiest months due to his coronation and birthday, with 23 royal commitments taking place in both months.
The King’s wife Camilla, the Queen Consort, ranks in seventh place, with a total of 101 royal appearances. This is 49% fewer commitments than the King, with November being the Queen Consort’s hardest working month (16). In 2022, King Charles attended 181 royal commitments, rising by 8% to 197 this year.
In third place is Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, with 141 royal engagements throughout 2023. This is 19% more engagements than wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, who places fourth with 114 royal commitments. November was Prince Edward’s busiest month (23 royal engagements), with 4 more appearances than Prince William, who had 110 royal appointments throughout 2023.
Prince Edward, The Duke of Kent ranks tenth place
Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, is the tenth hardest working royal with 64 royal engagements. This is 68% fewer commitments than his cousin King Charles III in second place (197 royal engagements). April, May and June were the Duke of Kent’s busiest months, with 10 royal engagements each month. In 2022, Prince Edward took part in 78 royal appointments, compared to just 64 this year, which is an 18% decrease.
Methodology:
- The Digital PR agency sought to calculate which working member of the royal family has had the most royal engagements in 2023.
- Utilising The Royal Court Circular the number of engagements by each member of the royal family between 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023 have been recorded, these were then added together and ranked.3
- The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and the Duke of York were not included in this study as they have stepped down as working members of the royal family.
- Princess Beatrice and Eugene were not included in this study as their engagements are not listed on The Court Circular.
- The full dataset used throughout this study can be found here.
- All data was collected on 06/12/2023 and is accurate as of then.
Photo credit: Pete Hancock/ Shutterstock.com