King Charles faces royal bottleneck as he leads family running out of hands

The Buckingham Palace balcony told its own story at this year’s Trooping the Colour.

It was once a crowded royal showcase that has been reduced to a carefully curated line-up with senior working royals, the Wales children and a single additional family member. 

The Royal Family is running short on working hands and the consequences are becoming impossible to ignore.

In 2025, just 10 working royals carried the weight of the monarchy. 

Together, they completed 2,459 official engagements, a sharp drop from 2018, when 16 working royals undertook nearly 4,000 duties. The decline isn’t about commitment; it’s about capacity.

The numbers also reveal a demographic squeeze. The average age of today’s working royals sits close to 70, with six of them now in their eighties responsible for roughly two-thirds of all appearances.

King Charles and Princess Anne continue to lead the workload, despite being well past typical retirement age.

William and Kate account for a much smaller share of health considerations, family priorities and a conscious effort to pace their roles while raising their children. 

The problem is that there simply aren’t enough younger royals ready to step in.

Recent health setbacks across the family exposed how fragile the system has become. Reduced schedules, hospital stays and scaled-back travel highlighted the lack of flexibility within the current model.

Solutions are limited and risky. Cutting back royal duties could weaken long-standing ties with charities and communities. 

Expanding the working roster would require reversing years of policy aimed at keeping the monarchy lean and would likely demand financial support for relatives leaving private careers.

Prince George and his siblings are still years away from full-time royal life, leaving a long stretch where the institution must manage with fewer faces and growing expectations.