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May 6, 2011

Longevity and the defence of the Monarchy

Filed under: Blog — Grove @ 3:36 pm

The DWP published some fascinating statistics in April in a document called ‘Number of Future Centenarians by Age Group’. A number of national newspapers noticed and carried articles trumpeting the news that more than 10 million of us are now expected to live to the age of 100. Wow!

There was also a big wedding in April. You may have seen it. The Prince married his Princess and prophecies of the patter of tiny royal feet abound.

It made me think; everyone who reaches 100 receives a letter from Buckingham Palace, presumably signed by the incumbent Monarch. So, the figures must show that the Monarchy will be working harder. Fortunately, all the figures I needed were available in the DWP paper so I decided to put it to the test.

Firstly, (if I may briefly digress) I found the percentage chance of the queen and each of the heirs each living to the age of 100:

The QueenÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 8.4%
Prince CharlesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 8.8%
Prince WilliamÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 16.4%

Whilst it’s interesting to note the small improvement in odds for Prince Charles compared to his mum, I imagine that Prince William (in the unlikely event that he reads this) will be feeling pretty good by now.

Now, back to the test, if we assume that all do actually live to exactly 100, the DWP figures can be used to project how many centenarianÂ letters each will have to sign during their reign:

The QueenÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 170,000 in 16 years
King CharlesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â 1,103,000 in 21 years
King WilliamÂ Â Â Â Â Â 4,285,000 in 34 years

Or, to put it another way, assuming that they’re allowed to take weekends off, the average workload will be:

The QueenÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 41 per day
King CharlesÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 202 per day
King WilliamÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 485 per day

In short, King William is projected to have to work over 10 times harder than his Grandmother, signing letters to new centenarians. Sounds as though RSI could be a real problem for him!

Would you fancy signing them all?Â Republicans take note.

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