Opinions have varied about the success or otherwise of Prince Harry and Meghan’s Australian tour. The Sussexes’ team say it was a triumph; their critics say it was a flop.
But now we have something more than vibes: hard data.
And it is brutal.
Roy Morgan, Australia’s oldest and best-known independent polling and market research company (founded in 1941, headquartered in Melbourne, with more than 80 years of continuous operation tracking Australian public opinion on everything from voting intentions to consumer confidence) interviewed a representative cross-section of 1,767 Australians aged 18 and over about Harry and Meghan’s visit.
These are not Twitter impressions or cherry-picked crowd shots. This is the real thing: a properly conducted, nationally representative survey from the country’s most established pollster.
First, the good news for the Sussexes: Australians knew they were there!
More than 82 percent of the adult population — some 18.1 million people — were aware of the visit.
The tour certainly got attention. What it did not get was approval.
Of those Australians who knew about the visit, a crushing 81 percent said it had not improved their opinion of the couple. Only 19 percent said it had.
Asked whether the trip would help Harry repair his relationship with the King, 87 percent said no.
Asked whether the tour had shown them a more positive side of Meghan, 75 percent said no.
Asked whether Harry and Meghan had been treated unfairly by the Royal Family, 69 percent said no.
