Every year, UFO No More counts the number of days worked by several royal families. We hope that learning about how many days these families worked during the year might help you put their totals in the “How Much Is It All Worth?” post into perspective.

Before diving into the data, we would like to make a brief disclaimer. We know that a lot of attention is usually paid to the number of engagements of the British Royal Family at the end of each year. The UFO No More team decided to count the number of days a royal has worked and not the number of engagements. Thus, the numbers presented in this post for the Prince and Princess of Wales and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh are the number of days they worked in 2023 and not the number of engagements they undertook.

Obviously, it is important to note that there are countless hours of behind-the-scenes and private work and meetings that we don’t know about and thus can’t include in this count.  These numbers below reflect the number of days that an announced event was written on the Court’s Calendar (and the Court Circular), events not on the calendar but articles were written about on the Court’s website, events from the various Social Media accounts used by the Courts, and their various organization/charities/foundation’s social media accounts. Multiple events in a single day are calculated as one day.

Now, onto the data.

BELGIUM

Our count for the Belgian Royal Family focuses on King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and Princess Elisabeth. Thus, in 2023, one of these three had a publicly announced event a total of 173 days of the year - 47,3% of the days in 2023. It was 169 days in 2022. Princess Elisabeth is not a full-time working royal but she is included in this count as she started attending official engagements in the past few years. In 2023, Princess Elisabeth also took part in her official engagements abroad with her parents.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole, a more detailed monthly count for each member of the family, and a 2022-2023 comparison.

DENMARK

In the year 2023, a member of the Danish royal family had a publicly announced event for a total of 191 days of the year- 52,3% of the days in 2023. It was 216 days in 2022, 188 days in 2021, 153 days in 2020, 227 days in 2019, 220 days in 2018, and 260 days in 2017.

In early 2023, Queen Margrethe underwent extensive back surgery and had to take a sick leave. Crown Prince Frederik was Regent for 55 days while Princess Benedikte acted as Regent for 22 days and Crown Princess Mary for 2 days. Prince Joachim and Princess Marie now live in Washington D.C, USA so their workload is still reduced.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole, a more detailed monthly count for each member of the family, and a 2022-2023 comparison to put the numbers in perspective.

LUXEMBOURG

Our count for the Luxembourg Grand Ducal Family focuses on the Grand Ducal Couple and the Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple. In 2023, someone had a publicly announced event for a total of 166 days of the year - 45,4% of the days in 2023. It was 163 days in 2022. We can note that Prince Charles and Prince François joined the Hereditary Grand Ducal Couple on 9 and 7 of their days worked in 2023 respectively!

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole and a more detailed monthly count as well as a 2022 - 2023 comparison.

MONACO

In 2023, Prince Albert and/or Princess Charlene had a publicly announced event for a total of 172 days of the year - 47,1% of the days in 2023. Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella joined their parents on 18 of these days.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole and a more detailed monthly count for the Princely Couple.

NORWAY

In 2023, a member of the Norwegian royal family had a public engagement for a total of 198 days of the year- 54,2% of the days in 2023. It was 194 days in 2022, 176 days in 2021, 158 days in 2020, and 199 days in 2019. Crown Prince Haakon is still the member of the royal family with the most days worked with 160 days worked (i.e. a day where he had an event on the calendar or a day where he had an unannounced event that we had photos of).

It has to be noted that since Crown Princess Mette-Marit was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, she has had a reduced workload. Princess Ingrid Alexandra is not a full-time working royal but she is now included in this count as she started attending official engagements in the past few years. You can see the monthly details for the family as a whole in the overview below.

SPAIN

In 2023, the Spanish Royal Family as a whole worked 213 days which is 58,3% of the days in 2023. The family had worked 219 days in 2022, 206 days in 2021, 213 days in 2020, and 205 days in 2019. This year, we also saw more of Queen Sofia. Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia also attended events with their parents and Princess Leonor had more solo events following her 18th birthday.

SWEDEN

In 2023, out of the 7 working adult members of the Swedish Royal Family- someone had a publicly announced engagement 218 days of the year which is 59,7% of the days in 2023. It was 228 days worked in 2022, 210 in 2021, 199 in 2020, and 222 in 2019. Princess Madeleine spent the majority of her time in Florida where she lives with her family, even though she spent part of the summer and the Christmas holidays in Sweden.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole, a more detailed monthly count for each member of the family, and a 2022-2023 comparison to put the numbers in perspective.

THE NETHERLANDS

Our count for the Dutch Royal Family focuses on King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima, Princess Catharina-Amalia, and Princess Beatrix. Thus, in 2023, one of these four had a publicly announced event a total of 162 days of the year - 44,3% of the days in 2023. Princess Catharina-Amalia is not a full-time working royal but she is included in this count as she started attending official engagements in the past few years. In 2023, Princess Catharina-Amalia also joined her parents on her first royal tour.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole, a more detailed monthly count for each member of the family, and a 2022-2023 comparison.

UNITED KINGDOM

Our count for the British Royal Family focuses on the Prince and Princess of Wales as well as the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. In 2023, one of these four members of the family had a publicly announced event for a total of 195 days of the year - 53,4% of the days in 2023. Of course, the year was marked by King Charles’ coronation in May.

In the overview below, you can see how many days the family worked each month as a whole, a more detailed monthly count for each member of the family, and a 2022-2023 comparison for both couples.

Did any of these numbers surprise you? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you would like to use these numbers for your own article - please make sure to credit us and link back to our original post. If you have any questions or want more information about the data posted here, send us an email.