Does Britain support the royal family? How has public opinion changed?

Celebrations will be in full swing across Britain this centenary weekend as the country celebrates Queen Elizabeth as the first British monarch to celebrate 70 years on the throne.

With the Queen recently celebrating her 96th birthday, there is much speculation about the future of the monarchy once the throne passes to her eldest son, Prince Charles.

Although Charles is relatively unpopular compared to his mother, support for the institution of monarchy remains high in the UK, with a majority of the population favoring keeping the royal family, the latest data shows.

But has public opinion of the monarchy cooled over time, and is there growing support for abolishing the crown?

NationalWorld analyzed the latest data to find out how the public feels about the royals.

The National Center for Social Research (NatCen) has been asking people in Britain what they think about the monarchy for decades in its annual British Social Attitudes Survey.

Their data shows a sharp drop from the 1980s to the 1990s in the proportion of people saying it is important that Britain continue to have a monarchy.

In 1983, 87% of respondents said it was important, 65% said it was very important, and 22% said it was fairly important.

By 1993 the total was 66% (32% very important, 34% fairly important).

During this time, the royal family was embroiled in controversy over the tumultuous relationship between Princess Diana and Prince Charles, among other things.

1992 was dubbed the Queen’s “annus horribilis” (terrible year) after Charles and Diana separated.

Support for the monarchy fell to just 59% in 2003. However, in later years their standing and reputation recovered, with 76% of people believing the royals were important in 2012 – the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, or 60th year on the throne.

In 2018, NatCen’s latest cohort of data on attitudes toward the monarchy, just under 6% of respondents (one in 18) wanted to abolish the monarchy — a small fry compared to a peak of 11% in 1996, the year of the divorce by Diana and Charles.

A recent poll by IPSOS found that support for the monarchy was at a 30-year low in November, with just 60% of people in favor of Britain remaining a monarchy, the lowest level for the issue since 1993.

People were asked, “Should Britain become a republic or remain a monarchy?”

However, this weakening of support for the monarchy did not translate into an increase in support for Britain becoming a republic, IPSOS said.

The support share has remained “fairly stable” over the past 30 years at 21% in November, with a fifth of respondents saying they say “don’t know” – the highest level of uncertainty in almost three decades.

A more recent YouGov poll conducted between May 16-17 paints a similar picture: 62% of respondents say Britain should continue to have a monarchy, with 22% saying it should have an elected head of state instead , and 16 % are undecided .

When YouGov asked the same question 10 years ago, 73% of the people on the team supported monarchy, 16% supported a republic, and 11% didn’t know.

In 2019, the Unherd publishing house conducted a survey with Polster Focaldata.

They asked how much respondents agreed with the statement “I am a strong supporter of the continued rule of the royal family”.

Just 48% of people across the UK said they supported the monarchy (either agreeing or strongly agreeing with the statement), with 25% disagreeing and 28% unsure.

However, the wording of the question required respondents to indicate that they were a strong supporter of the monarchy, and not just a supporter.

According to the British Social Attitudes Survey, women are generally more supportive of the monarchy than men.

In 2015, the most recent year with a gender breakdown, 79% of women said it was important (46% very, 33% somewhat) compared to 66% of men (34% very, 32% somewhat).

There was also a clear age distinction, with younger respondents being less likely to be supportive.

In 2015, 67% of those aged 17 to 34 said it was important to keep the royal family, compared to 71% of those aged 35 to 54 and 79% of those aged 55 and over.

The latest YouGov poll also shows stronger support among women, with 64% in favor of Britain keeping a monarchy in the future versus 59% of men.

It also showed higher support among those who voted Conservative in the 2019 general election (84% versus 48% of Labor voters) and those who voted to leave in the Brexit referendum (77% versus 54% for). the remaining).

Support for the monarchy is particularly low in London and Scotland, according to the YouGov poll earlier this month – although results were only presented for a select group of regions.

In London, 50% of people wanted the UK to remain a monarchy in the future (compared to 62% for the country as a whole), while in Scotland support was just 47%.

There was also a higher proportion of people in these parts of the country who thought Britain should have an elected head of state instead – 33% in London and 32% in Scotland, compared with a national average of 22%.