Do Dutch royals cost more than others?

New research into the cost of Europe’s royal families appears to suggest the Dutch monarchy is the second most expensive, with a total bill to the taxpayer of nearly €40m.

Top of the list of eight royal families is the British monarchy, costing nearly €49 a year. Spain and Luxemburg, by contrast are in seventh and eighth place with an annual bill of under €9m.
But, says Belgian political scientist Herman Matthijs, who carried out the research, the figures are not easily compared. For a start, the cost of security, state visits and maintaining palaces is not included – an expense which takes the cost of Dutch queen Beatrix and her immediate family to over €100m a year.
‘The Spanish royal family looks to be the poorest in Europe. But that sum is simply the king’s pocket money. The state pays for everything else,’ Matthijs was quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.
Britain and the Netherlands have the biggest bills, but they also have the most transparent royal budgets, he said.