THE royal family and upcoming coronation have been dominating headlines in recent weeks, as King Charles’s special day grows nearer.
With a cost of living crisis, high inflation, and Brexit doing serious damage to the UK economy, some have suggested that a one-day event reportedly costing between £50 and £100 million might be a bit on the nose.
But it is going ahead - so how popular is the royal family in Scotland, and do Scots actually like the Monarchy? Or would we prefer a Republic with an elected head of state instead?
We’ve collated some interactive graphs on the royals, and you can find out below.
Does Scotland care about the coronation?
It was a resounding no. As we previously told, following a poll from YouGov asking over 1000 adults in Scotland for their views on the upcoming ceremony - only 6% said they cared about the coronation a “great deal”, while a whopping 41% said “not at all”.
It also emerged last week that the public will be invited to swear allegiance to the King during the ceremony. Our reporter took to the streets of Glasgow to find out how many would be taking part, and the results were interesting to say the least.
How popular is the King and other members of the royal family?
Prior to the Queen’s death, the long-running monarch was consistently the most popular member of the royal family, except for a short period in 2019 when Prince William returned an 83% favourability rating compared to Elizabeth’s 81%. What’s interesting about the overall figures is that Charles had a much lower favourability rating than both his sons - until after Harry announced his engagement to Meghan Markle in November 2017. While Harry’s popularity continued to drop, Charles’s remained low, until after his mother’s death in September 2022.
The data above is UK-wide.
Monarchy vs Republic?
Looking at polling from YouGov in both 2022 and 2023 and from Lord Ashcroft, can give us an indication of how Scots feel about a monarchy compared to a republic, and compared to the UK at large. UK-wide, the monarchy is more popular than the idea of a republic, with 67% in favour of a monarchy in 2022, and 58% in 2023, according to YouGov, while Lord Ashcroft’s survey showed support for the monarchy at 67%.
However, support for a republic is more popular amongst Scottish respondents, with the highest support for the monarchy at 50% in 2022, where 34% of respondents backed an elected head of state. The YouGov poll in 2023 returned the highest support for a republic - at 40%.
Top pollster Sir John Curtice said there was a 10-point difference between Scotland and Britain in the level of support for the monarchy.
“Both polls suggest that while retaining the monarchy is still more popular in Scotland than having a republic, the level of support may now have dipped to below a half,” Curtice said.
And what about in the event of Scottish independence?
Should Scotland retain the monarchy or move to a republic with an elected head of state, in the event of independence from the UK is a burning question in the constitutional debate. It’s a tightrope debate, with support for an independent Scotland having a monarchy at 41% while an elected head of state is at 40%, according to a poll from 2022.
A poll from April this year, asked Scots if they think Britain should have an elected head of state or a monarchy in future, with 46% backing the monarchy, compared to 40% for a republic.
Who would YOU want to be the first elected President in an independent Scotland?
We are asking readers to send us their suggestions ahead of the coronation - you can take part here.
