How much does the Royal Family cost? Key figures revealed

From the cost of housekeeping and hospitality for the royal household to the cost of the late Queen’s funeral, millions do tend to get racked up.

Here are some of the key figures from the royal accounts for 2022-2023.

How much does the Royal Family cost?

The official net expenditure by the monarchy is £107.5 million, a rise of £5.1 million or 5% from £102.4 million in 2021/2022.

£1.6 million was spent from the Sovereign Grant on the late Queen’s funeral.

More than 2,700 official engagements were attended by members of the royal family in the UK and overseas, compared with 2,300 last year (Image: Chris Jackson/PA Wire)

In total, the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant was £86.3 million, made up of £51.8 million for the “core” funding and an extra £34.5 million for the reservicing of Buckingham Palace.

The amount spent from the Sovereign Grant on the Platinum Jubilee was £700,000, including £300,000 from 2022-23.

There are now 517 full-time equivalent staff paid for from the Sovereign Grant, including fixed-term contracts. This has increased from 491.

The wage bill for staff has increased by £3.4 million or 14% to £27.1 million, from £23.7 million the year before.

Alongside that, the cost of housekeeping and hospitality for the royal household was £2.4 million which has increased by £1.1 million from £1.3 million.

Meanwhile, the cost of royal travel has decreased to £3.9 million. This is a drop of £0.6 million or about 13%, from £4.5 million the previous year.

Members of the royal family have taken 179 helicopter trips, costing £1.02 million.

The cost of royal travel has decreased to £3.9 million. (Image: Chris Jackson/PA)

Charter flights for the King and Queen to Rwanda for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting cost £186,571 while charter flights for the King and Queen’s first official state visit to Germany in March 2023 cost £146,219.

It cost £25,687 for a residence-to-residence charter flight for the King when he flew from Aberdeen to Northolt in October 2022.

The cost per person in the UK of funding the total Sovereign Grant was £1.29.

The cost per person of the “core” part of the Sovereign Grant for official duties, not including funds for the long-term Buckingham Palace works was 77p.

There were 183,207 items of correspondence received by Buckingham Palace in 2022-23 including 67,693 before the Queen’s death and 115,244 afterwards, making it the busiest year on record for incoming post.

The proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds working for Buckingham Palace is 9.7% compared with 9.7% in 2021-22 and 8.5% in 2020-21. The target was 10% and is now 14%.

There were 183,207 items of correspondence received by Buckingham Palace in 2022-23 (Image: Zac Goodwin/PA)

The proportion of staff from ethnic minority backgrounds working for Kensington Palace is 16.3%, an increase from 13.6% last year.

More than 2,700 official engagements were attended by members of the royal family in the UK and overseas, compared with 2,300 last year.

Duchy of Cornwall statistics

In total £5.9 million was made by the Prince of Wales in private income from the Duchy of Cornwall landed estate.

This was for the six months he spent as a new heir to the throne in 2022-23.

£6.9 million has been kept by the landed estate for day-to-day running instead of going to William as salary.

The King received £12.8 million salary as the Prince of Wales from the Duchy.

The total annual Duchy of Cornwall profit for 2022-23 was £24 million, which would ordinarily have been William’s full salary.