Have you ever wondered what Queen Elizabeth really does throughout her daily life and
how different that might be to other people’s lives in the United Kingdom?
What she has for breakfast, who cooks it for her, and has she ever been to the shops or
had any of the experiences an average Joe has?
You never really know how the other side lives, until you do a bit of digging.
In today’s show, that’s exactly what we will be doing: learning a little bit about
the Queen of the United Kingdom to see what she gets up to and how different her life
is to everyday people.
Welcome to this episode of the Infographics Show: The Queen vs the Average Brit.
Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born on April 21st, 1926.
When her father, King George VI died in February 1952, she became Queen Elizabeth the 2nd.
Her coronation was on June 2nd, 1953.
She is the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.
So how does her life compare to the average Brit?
First, we came across The Crown Chronicles, an online publication focusing solely on Royal
news.
They published an article detailing the Queens daily routine - a great place to start.
Her Majesty gets up at around 8.30 am, being greeted by the sounds of Scottish bagpipes
each morning at nine, as a piper plays on the terrace beneath her apartment at Buckingham
Palace.
For breakfast, she usually has Cornflakes or Special K cereal and fresh or dried fruit.
Bagpipes before breakfast is far from the norm of wake up calls, but Cornflakes for
breakfast…that’s pretty normal.
According to a 2014 survey on what Britain’s best love for breakfast, Cornflakes was number
5 on the list.
So when it comes to morning eating habits, the Queen is not far off the average.
But then after Breakfast, life takes a less than average direction, when The Queen decides
to open her ‘fan mail’.
She can receive over 300 letters from the public every single day.
She doesn’t have time to open them all, of course, but she does choose a few to reply
to, and usually takes a random sample.
The Queen’s afternoons are often spent on public engagements, carefully selected from
hundreds of invitations she receives each year.
She carries out well over 300 per year, visiting schools, hospitals, factories, military units,
art galleries, hostels for the homeless, and British and Commonwealth organisations.
When travelling outside of London, The Queen will use the Royal helicopter, or sometimes
a Royal Air force aircraft for the speed it has.
She will also use the Royal Train, which functions as a portable mini palace.
So the majority of her day is a routine suited for Royalty and very different to the average
Brit.
What else can we explore when it comes the Queen vs the average Brit?
One thing the Queen is well known for is her love of dogs, in particular Corgis.
The Queen takes her pack of Corgis out for a walk just after lunch, around the grounds
of Buckingham Palace.
A dog is the most common pet in the UK, with 24% of households enjoying the company of
a K 9.
However, where the life of the average house dog may differ to that of a Royal Corgi is
when it comes to eating…Forget bagged dry food and canned wet food, according to Brian
Hoey in the 2013 book "Pets by Royal Appointment," the Queen's Corgis are fed at 5 p.m. each
evening and dine on filet steak and chicken breast that has been expertly prepared by
a chef.
The menu is created from scratch with fresh ingredients, and it is typed up daily and
placed in the kitchen.
Their meals are hand delivered to them by a footman, while sometimes the Queen herself
pours gravy over their feast before they begin eating.
Now those are some lucky little Corgis!
What about her wealth?
How does The Queen’s net worth compare to the average Brit?
According to Bloomberg, The Queen is estimated to have a personal net worth of around $425
million.
That includes the $65 million Sandringham House and the $140 million Balmoral Castle.
That’s a lot of money to the man on the street, but it’s maybe less than you would
think for a monarch, and would not put her at the top end of the UK rich list.
However, those figures are only what she has inherited.
The true wealth of her family comes from properties kept in trust, which generate income.
The trust is called the Crown Estate and includes the Crown Jewels and Buckingham Palace, as
well as large areas of central London, including nearly all of Regent Street, half the buildings
in St. James, farmland, industrial, office, and retail properties, about half of the United
Kingdom’s shoreline, and almost all the seabed to the 12-mile territorial limit.
We tried to find out exactly how much this is all worth, but since some of the assets
are privately owned while others are owned on behalf of the nation by the monarch for
the duration of their reign, it is complicated.
According to a Reuters estimate, the British monarchy has nominal assets worth about $34.8
billion.
That would not get the British monarchy a spot in the top 10 global rich list, but it
would place the family in the top 20 globally.
How does this all compare to the average Brit?
Well according to the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper, legal experts calculated the value of the
average Briton's property equity, savings, pensions, investments, cars and possessions
at £147,134.
So not a scratch on the Queen’s wealth, and as the Daily Mail pointed out, less than
0.01 percent of footballer David Beckham’s net worth.
So Her Majesty eats Cornflakes, walks her dogs, and replies to mail when people write
to her.
Not too far away from your average Brit.
But outside of those ordinary activities, she also lives a far more extraordinary life
with travelling and attending appointments, and when it comes to her net worth, though
it’s hard to get exact figures on it, it is clear the Queen is not short of a dollar.
So, is it fair that the Queen is so much richer than the average Brit?
Should the UK even continue to have a queen?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Also, be sure to check out our other video called Bill Gates vs the Average American!
Thanks for watching, and, as always, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe.
See you next time!