The balcony of Buckingham Palace told its own story at this year’s Trooping the Colour.
Once a crowded royal showcase that has been reduced to carefully curated programming featuring working royals, the children of Wales and just one additional family member.
The Royal Family is running out of manpower and the consequences are becoming impossible to ignore.
In 2025, only 10 active royals carried the weight of the monarchy.
Together, they completed 2,459 official engagements, a sharp drop from 2018, when 16 working royals took on almost 4,000 tasks. Decline is not about commitment; It’s about capacity.
The figures also reveal a demographic contraction. The average age of working royals today is approaching 70, and six of them, now in their eighties, are responsible for about 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 control their roles while raising their children.
The problem is that there simply aren’t enough younger royals ready to step in.
Recent family-wide health setbacks exposed how fragile the system has become. Reduced hours, hospital stays and reduced travel highlighted the lack of flexibility within the current model.
The solutions are limited and risky. Cutting royal duties could weaken long-standing ties with charities and communities.
Expanding the workforce would require reversing years of policies aimed at keeping the monarchy agile and would likely require financial support for family members who abandon private careers.
Prince George and his siblings are still years away from full-time royal life, leaving a long period in which the institution must make do with fewer faces and rising expectations.
