One in four Americans say they are interested in the birth of the royal baby. Women, older Americans and those affiliated with political parties are the most interested.
William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, welcomed their first child, a boy, into the world today. The baby, the grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, is third in line to the British throne.
On this happy day for the British royal family, new YouGov research shows that one in four Americans say they are interested in the birth of the royal baby. Specifically, 5% of Americans say they are "very interested" and a further 20% are "somewhat interested" in the birth.
While interest here is understandably less than in the United Kingdom, where 14% of UK adults are "very interested" and 32% are "somewhat interested", the level of interest is much higher than for another recent birth, heavily covered by the media. As an earlier YouGov survey showed, only 9% of Americans say they followed the birth of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's daughter North "very closely" or "somewhat closely".
The groups most interested in the birth of the royal baby were women (36% were at least somewhat interested), those above 65 years old (34%), Republicans (31%) and Democrats (29%). Interestingly, Independents were less likely to be interested in the birth of the royal baby than Americans affiliated with political parties.
While one in four Americans express interest in the birth, the poll also sees ambivalence towards the British monarchy at a half-century high. 41% of Americans say that the British royal family is a good thing for the people of Britain, 15% say it is a bad thing and 43% are not sure.
Although the number of Americans who say that the royal is a good thing for Britain significantly outnumbers the amount of who say it is a bad thing, the amount saying it is a good thing is down almost 30 percentage points since when the Gallup Poll asked a similar question in 2002. Then, 70% of Americans said that royal family was a good thing for England, while 17% said it was a bad thing and 13% had no opinion. In fact, American public opinion is closer to what it was in 1950, when 45% thought the royal family was good for England, 20% thought it was a bad thing and 35% had no opinions.
Despite the 25% of Americans who are interested in the British royal baby, Americans are just as unsupportive as ever about the prospect of an American royal family. Only 7% of Americans say that an American royal family would be good for the people of the United States, while 71% say it would be a bad thing. In 2002, 9% of Americans thought an American royal family would be good for Americans and in 1950, 3% thought it would be a good thing.
