The 10 richest royal families on the planet control an estimated $2.4 trillion (£1.87tn) between them, according to BuyShares. But the recent Pandora Papers have raised questions over how some royal dynasties make and spend their money. Read on as we profile the richest royal families and their fortunes. All dollar values in US dollars.

One of only two European royal families in our round-up, Liechtenstein's regal dynasty takes the number 10 spot with an estimated net worth of $4.4 billion (£3.57bn). The lion's share of the family fortune rests with Prince Hans-Adam II (pictured), the reigning monarch.

Hans-Adam II is the latest in a long line of monarchs who have ruled over the tiny Alpine principality since its creation as a sovereign state in 1806. The financier royal, who pays no taxes, derives much of his wealth from LTG Group, the family's private bank, which he controls via a foundation.

In addition to the bank, the Prince of Liechtenstein Foundation presides over a portfolio of high-value property, thriving companies, and other lucrative investments, not to mention a world-class collection of art featuring masterpieces by Raphael, Rembrandt and Van Dyck. Prince Hans-Adam II hit headlines in February 2020 after losing a court case over the ownership of one of his properties, which had been seized by Czechoslovakia after World War II. The court ruled that the disputed land should rightfully be under Czech ownership and it was handed back, although the move is unlikely to have had much impact on the family’s immense wealth. 

Morocco's ruling family is the Alaouite dynasty, which was founded in 1631 but originated in the 13th century. The core family is made up of 19 members led by King Mohammed VI, who ascended to the throne in 1999.

Most estimates put the net worth of the Moroccan royal family at around $8.2 billion (£6bn), making them the ninth richest royal family on the planet. On top of owning billions of dollars’ worth of assets, the Moroccan royal family has one of the world's longest civil lists, which is the line of royals who are paid money by the government for their service to the state.

Next in line to the throne is 17-year-old Moulay Hassan (pictured), the eldest of King Mohammed VI and Princess Lalla Salma’s two children. They also have a daughter, Princess Lalla Khadija, who is 14. It was reported in 2018 that the young crown prince had been gifted a private jet to travel the world and that he hoped to study aviation after his schooling. However, Morocco called this report "fake news" and said that the plane was purchased by the Royal Armed Forces for senior officials to carry out trips.

The House of Maktoum rules the roost in Dubai. Dating back to 1833, the royal dynasty has 12 primary members and hundreds of extended family members. Together, their wealth has been estimated at around $18 billion (£14.6bn).

The richest family member by far is the head of the dynasty and ruler of Dubai: Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The sheikh, who has ruled since 2006 and serves as the UAE's vice president and prime minister, controls investment vehicle Dubai Holdings and is known for his largesse. Rashid Al Maktoum has six wives, and a record-breaking $100 million (£49.4m) is rumoured to have been spent on his wedding to senior wife Sheikha Hind bint Maktoum in 1979. 

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Rashid Al Maktoum owns luxury properties across Europe, as well as one of the world's largest yachts, and his name is also synonymous with horse racing. The sheikh owns Darley Stud, the largest horse racing breeding operation in the world, and has become the sport’s most influential figure. Speculation about the sheikh’s power has been rife of late, following the release of videos showing his daughter Princess Latifa (pictured here riding) in solitary confinement after she attempted to escape from Dubai in 2018.

Brunei's royal dynasty, the House of Bolkiah was formed in 1363 and has ruled the southeast Asian country on and off ever since. It is headed by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who has been in power for the past 54 years.

The family has become obscenely rich off the back of Brunei's vast reserves of oil. The sultan was said to be worth $20 billion (£12.29bn) in 2011, according to Forbes. However, his net worth could be closer to $28 billion (£22.7bn) according to Asia Tatler. Another notable member of the family is the late Prince Azim (pictured centre left), who was fourth in line to the throne and believed to have a fortune of $5 billion (£3.88bn) before he tragically died in October last year following a long-term illness.

Famously extravagant, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah lives in the Istana Nurul Iman palace, which holds the Guinness World Record for the world's largest residential palace with a total area of 2.2 million square feet (200,000 square metres). It cost a jaw-dropping $1.4 billion (£941.8m) to build back in 1984. The head of the Bolkiah family is also rumoured to own 7,000 supercars including 600 Rolls-Royces and 300 Ferraris, as well as several private jets.

Find out more about the Sultan of Brunei and his extreme spending

The Chakri dynasty has been Thailand's ruling royal house since 1782 and continues to be treated with the utmost reverence in the country. The current King Maha Vajiralongkorn accepted the throne in 2016 upon the death of his father King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Based in Bangkok, a total of 22 individuals makes up the Thai royal family, including unofficial members and former spouses. But the core family numbers just 10. The exact wealth of the royal family cannot be publicly declared as it's protected by a lèse-majesté (which translates as "to do wrong to majesty") law, a strict anti-defamation policy that has seen people arrested and often jailed for seemingly harmless acts such as posting mocking images of the King's favourite dog on Facebook. Student-led protests demanding a reform of the monarchy erupted across the country last year, but these were countered by mass displays of devotion from crowds of loyalists (pictured).

Analysts estimate the royal family's net worth at between $30 billion and $60 billion (£24.4bn-£48.7bn), all of which was signed over to the king himself in 2018 after having been managed by the country’s Crown Property Bureau for the previous 80 years. King Maha Vajiralongkorn is believed to be the richest individual royal in the world, with a fortune of $30 billion (£24.4bn). His assets, which can be spent at the “King's pleasure”, include enormous tracts of valuable real estate in central Bangkok, large stakes in several key Thai companies, and shares in luxury hotel group Kempinski. The portfolio reportedly generates around $3 billion (£2.1bn) in revenue each year. 

The British royal family was estimated as worth a whopping $88 billion (£69bn) according to Forbes in 2017. This estimate accounts for concrete assets such as property, as well as the value of the family brand. Unsurprisingly, Queen Elizabeth II has the highest personal net worth at an estimated £350 million ($428.3m), according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2020. Part of that comes from profits generated by the Crown Estate, known as the Sovereign Grant, and income from real estate such as Balmoral Castle in Scotland and Sandringham House in Norfolk, England. 

In October, the Crown Estate was named in the Pandora Papers, which revealed the organisation bought a £67 million ($91.2m) London property from Azerbaijani ruler Ilham Aliyev. Widely accused of corruption and human rights offences, the Aliyev family is thought to have traded around £400 million ($545m) of UK property. The Estate said it would investigate the matter further.

Read more about how the British royal family make and spend their money

When Prince Harry and Megan Markle announced on 8 January 2020 that they planned to leave their positions as senior royals and become financially independent, the world was in shock. Markle was worth an estimated $5 million (£3.9m) thanks to her career as an actress, and she made a reported $50,000 (£39k) per episode of Suits. Meanwhile Prince Harry was thought to be worth at least $25 million (£19.3m), much of which he inherited from his late mother. Over the last year, the Sussexes have reportedly signed a $100 million (£73.1m) deal with Netflix to produce their own series, as well as a podcasting deal with Spotify rumoured to be worth around $25 million (£18.26m). Commercial deals such as these will likely fund the costs associated with being royals, in name at least – not least their security. 

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The House of Nahyan descends from the same tribe as Dubai's ruling Al Maktoum dynasty, and has been the reigning royal family of Abu Dhabi since 1793. The clan counts 200 male members – the number of females in the family is unknown.

Like the other royal families in the Middle East, the Al Nahyans derive their wealth from oil. The family amassed the bulk of its fortune, which is estimated to be $150 billion (£116.6bn), during the 1970s when siphoning off the country's oil profits wasn't considered bad form.

Head of the family Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been the emir of Abu Dhabi and president of the UAE since 2004 and chairs the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages an estimated $696.6 billion (£526.1bn) in assets, including Dubai's Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world's tallest building. Sheikh Khalifa has also recently been identified as one of London’s wealthiest landlords, with a sprawling property empire worth £5.5 billion ($7.1bn) in England’s capital estimated to bring in around £160 million ($205.9m) in rent each year, as revealed by the Guardian newspaper in October.

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The House of Thani has been in charge in Qatar since the mid-19th century and the current ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who at 40 is the youngest sovereign in the world, was appointed emir in 2013. The family is said to number in the thousands, possibly around 7,000 or 8,000.

The Al Thanis fell out with their Gulf neighbours in 2017 after allegedly paying terrorist organisation al-Qaeda a ransom of $1 billion (£647.5m) for the release of 28 members of a royal hunting party, who were kidnapped in Iraq two years previously. Qatar’s ruling family disputed the allegation, saying that the money was paid to the Iraqi state rather than the terrorists. Either way, the sum was a drop in the ocean of the family’s enormous fortune, which is believed to be an estimated $335 billion (£253bn) fund.

The fund's assets include London's Shard skyscraper (pictured), the UK capital's Olympic Village and Harrods department store, as well as substantial stakes in New York's Empire State Building and famous firms including Volkswagen, Barclays and British Airways. But its property dealings have recently come under fire. According to leaked documents in the Pandora Papers, Qatar's royal family avoided £18.5 million ($25.2m) in property tax after buying two houses on Cornwall Terrace in central London for £120 million ($163.4m). Although there's no evidence to suggest the evasion was illegal, the Crown Estate – who owns the freehold of the houses – has said it will investigate the matter. 

Over in Kuwait, the Al Sabah family is at the helm. The dynasty has ruled the Middle Eastern country since 1752 and the current emir is Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. All in all, the family is said to number around 1,000 members.

Estimates of the family's net worth are hard to come by, but a Time magazine article from 1991 put it at a staggering $90 billion (£47.4bn). Much of the wealth is thought to be tied up in US stocks and shares, which have skyrocketed in value over the years...

In fact, experts believe the Kuwaiti royal family's fortune may have quadrupled since the early 1990s, with the oft-quoted figure being $360 billion (£280bn). Even this estimate may be on the conservative side – the family is reported to have massive stakes in most of the major blue-chip companies in the US.

The wealthiest royal family in the world is the House of Saud, which is estimated to be worth more than a jaw-dropping $1.4 trillion (£1.1tn). This unimaginable wealth is spread out among the vast family's 15,000 or so members.

The House of Saud has ruled the nation that bears its name since 1744. The current King Salman has been on the throne since 2015 and power in the country, and much of its wealth, lies with the monarch and his relatives. He is thought to be the richest individual member of the family with a $18 billion (£12.9bn) fortune.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who was arrested by the Saudi government in 2017 on corruption charges, is the second wealthiest individual member of the family with an estimated net worth of $13.4 billion (£9.6bn), although the Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts his wealth at $17.1 billion (£12.2bn). Alwaleed's wealth fell sharply in late 2018, as his stake in the Kingdom Holding Company is said to have dropped by 70% in value since 2014. The prince was freed in January 2018 following several months' detention. He is thought to have paid authorities a settlement fee to secure his release, with reports suggesting it was as high as $6 billion (£4.36bn). He described the situation as a "misunderstanding" and said there was "not necessarily" a settlement fee.

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