U.K. royal family pumps billions into the economy. The queen’s death may change that

The royal family has one of the most valuable brands in the world. After the death of Queen Elizabeth II, is the monarchy's economic impact at risk?

The death of Queen Elizabeth II is sure to send shockwaves through the economies of both the United Kingdom and Canada as experts say the brand value of the British royal family is at risk with the loss of its longest-reigning monarch.

The queen’s death on Sept. 8 marked not only the loss of the U.K. and Canada’s constitutional head, but the figurehead and brand ambassador of the monarchy itself, according to Charles Scarlett-Smith, director of Brand Finance Canada.

“When we’re thinking about Queen Elizabeth II’s brand, we really are being synonymous with the royal family and the monarchy,” he tells Global News.

And that brand alone ranks among the most valuable in the world, according to a Brand Finance report assessing the monarchy’s capital value in 2017.

The British monarchy — its actual assets plus intangible impacts on the economy — was valued at £67.5 billion that year, or roughly CAD$112.4 billion in 2017 dollars.

Comparing the royal family’s value to a similar list of major corporate brands prepared that same year by Brand Finance, the monarchy would’ve ranked fourth in the world, behind just Google, Apple and Amazon.

While the average annual cost for U.K. taxpayers to upkeep the royals comes in around £500 million a year (CAD $700-$750M), Brand Finance estimates the monarchy’s brand contributes £2.5 billion (CAD$3.7B) to the British economy each year.

“Royalist or not, the amount of economic benefit that’s brought to the (U.K.) from the existence of the royal family is undeniable,” Scarlett-Smith says.