Queen’s funeral to attract twice as many people as were alive in 1926

Some 4.1 billion people are expected to watch Queen Elizabeth II's funeral on TV ... how does that compare with other record audiences?

As many as 4.1 billion people globally are expected to watch Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral today, making it the most watched TV broadcast of all time. It’s also, soberingly, more than double the world’s total population – 2 billion – when she was born in 1926.

Today, Monday 19 September, the Queen’s body will be carried to Westminster Abbey in England for a state funeral before being laid to rest at Windsor Castle.

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Paul Dalgarno is author of the novels A Country of Eternal Light (2023) and Poly (2020); the memoir And You May Find Yourself (2015); and the creative non-fiction book Prudish Nation (2023). He was formerly Deputy Editor of The Conversation and joined ScreenHub as Managing Editor in 2022. X: @pauldalgarno. Insta: @dalgarnowrites