King Charles's Public Rating Falls to Lowest Level of His Reign, YouGov Finds
King Charles III's favourability rating has fallen to its lowest level since he came to the throne, according to YouGov's royal family tracker for October 2026, published on 29 October. The polling firm found 58% of the public view the King positively, a four-point drop since the summer.
The figure that matters most in the tracker is the net score. That is the share who view someone positively, minus the share who view them negatively. In the latest poll, 34% viewed the King negatively, and his net score is +24. In July it was +31. Hello Magazine, in an analysis by Senior Editor Jack Malvern, reports that +24 is the lowest of the 26 YouGov polls carried out during his reign. It is two points below his April rating, and the magazine says the last time public opinion of him was this low was May 2022, in the final months of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.
The same YouGov poll rates other royals. YouGov's post on X gives the Prince of Wales 74% positive and the Princess of Wales 72%. Princess Anne has 68%, the Countess of Wessex 51%, and the King 58%.
Other pollsters have measured the monarchy this year. Ipsos, in polling published on 16 September 2026, found 52% of Britons hold a favourable view of the King, and 53% say he is doing a good job. Ipsos's June 2026 survey found 55% of Britons prefer a monarchy to a republic. Among 18 to 34 year olds, 33% backed a monarchy, 45% backed a republic and 22% did not know. (Ipsos, June 2026)
Ratings of this kind can be read against the King's earlier years. In April 2023, shortly before his coronation on 6 May, an Ipsos poll found 49% of the public thought he was doing a good job, as Reuters reported at the time.
Hello's piece sets the poll beside a busy week of public engagements. The King hosted a state visit from the Sultan of Oman, travelled to Aberfan in Wales to meet survivors of the 1966 disaster, and began a royal tour of the Caribbean. In Nassau, Bahamas, he joined dancers in a Junkanoo street parade. Hello reports that he kept up this overseas schedule while undergoing cancer treatment.
A favourability poll asks how people feel about a person. It does not ask whether they think that person is doing the job well, and the two questions can produce different answers.
