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How many days did the Scandinavian and Spanish royal families work in 2018?

At the end of each year, we can study and comment on the work of the British Royal Family. The UFO No More team decided to look at the work of the Scandinavian royal families which is something that is not always done.

Before going into the numbers, a little disclaimer. These numbers represent the days worked by each member of the royal families based on their official calendar. Of course, there are meetings, “office work” to prepare each event that we don’t know about, so they are all working more than these numbers show, but they still are a good overview.

It was decided to count the days worked rather than the numbers of events because it was easier but also clearer. Naturally, they sometimes attend several events a day.

Let’s start with the numbers of the Danish Royal Family. It was a difficult start for the family in 2018 as Prince Henrik passed away in February 2018. With the exception of two events, the family was in a period of mourning from February 13th to March 13th. For the year of 2018, someone in the family had a publicly announced event a total of 220 days of the year- 60% of the days in 2018. It was 260 days in 2017. Unlike last year, Queen Margrethe is not the member of the family who worked the most days. But with 93 days worked and considering the difficult year she had with the loss of her husband and her cousin Princess Elisabeth, it is still quite remarkable. Princess Benedikte also worked more with several week-long trips abroad to support her patronages.

© Heaven LeeMiller/ UFO No More

Contrary to last year’s numbers, Crown Prince Frederik worked more than Crown Princess Mary despite having to take a two-week sick leave because of a surgery. Princess Marie worked the exact same number of days as in 2017, but Prince Joachim worked fewer days. It is important to note that both Prince Joachim and Princess Marie have a day job – he works with the Armed Forces, and she works with the Danish Emergency Management Agency. They don’t receive any salary for their work. It was also announced a few weeks ago that Prince Joachim was currently filming several documentaries about Denmark and what it means to be Danish and that the filming will continue until summer 2019 so this will probably impact next year’s days worked number for the Prince.

©Heaven LeeMiller/UFO No More

As to the Swedish Royal Family’s numbers, King Carl XVI Gustaf worked the most, 148 days out of the 219 days worked by the family in 2018. As a whole, the family worked more days than in 2017, but that is explained by the fact that Princess Sofia came back from maternity leave and that both Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel worked more days than in 2017 and did more international trips. Princess Madeleine has a part-time job with the World Childhood Foundation (for which she doesn’t receive a salary), but she also gave birth to Princess Adrienne and moved to Florida with her husband, Chris O’Neill and their three children which explains her lower number. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not she has more official engagements in 2019.

©Sarah Williams/UFO No More

The Norwegian Royal Family worked a few more days than last year, with King Harald keeping an impressive rhythm. Crown Princess Mette-Marit had to take two sick leaves before announcing that she had pulmonary fibrosis that will cause her to reduce her workload. It also understandably explains her lower number this year. Both Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon worked more days than in 2017 with Crown Prince Haakon working the most days when it comes to announced events. Princess Märtha Louise and Princess Astrid only attend the family events and events related to their foundations or patronages which explains their lower numbers compared to the rest of the family. On another note, Princess Ingrid Alexandra has started attending more events outside of the traditional family events this year so it’ll be interesting to see the numbers of events she attend next year.

© Heaven LeeMiller/ UFO No More

©Heaven LeeMiller/UFO No More

As I did last year, I kept a tally for the number of audiences King Harald hosted as I noticed that while Crown Prince Haakon worked the most days in 2017 and 2018, King Harald usually had several audiences during his announced worked days. Once again, the numbers are higher than last year’s.

© Heaven LeeMiller/ UFO No More

The Spanish Royal Family didn’t appear in last year’s article, but we counted their worked days for 2018 and went back to count their worked days in 2017 based on the Court’s official calendar in order to be able to make a comparison. In 2018, a working member of the Royal Family had an announced event on 209 days out of 365. Princess Elena only attends a few official events during the year, but King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofía still work regularly. Similarly to Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía attended more official events this year.

© Heaven LeeMiller/ UFO No More

©Heaven LeeMiller/UFO No More

 

As stated multiple times, these numbers are only based on the official calendars and represent days worked not events attended. Thus, these numbers are an overview of the work of the royal families, but it is essential to acknowledge that they work more than these numbers show.

The graphs and data belong to Sarah Williams (The Royals and IUFO No More) and Heaven LeeMiller (Princess Marie’s Closet/UFO No More) who have graciously allowed us to use them. If you wish to use them, please do it with credit and a link to the original post.