Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex 'most popular royal' worldwide

Members of the royal family (back, from left) Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, (front, from left) Kate Middleton, Prince William, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry in 2017. Photo / Getty Images

Meghan Markle has been voted the world's most popular UK royal, according to a new survey.

The Duchess of Sussex, who quit the royal family and moved to the US with her husband, Prince Harry, and the couple's son Archie, beat Kate Middleton and the Queen to the top spot.

Markle got a popularity score of 14.5 per cent on the Onbuy survey, which uses data from YouGov rankings, Google search volumes, as well as the royal calendar and Instagram, to attribute a popularity score to each UK royal family member.

Despite the controversy surrounding "Megxit" and a decline in public appearances because of Covid-19 restrictions, the Duchess of Sussex still proves to be the most popular with royal fans.

Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, was second, with a rating of 14.4 per cent, while the Queen was third, with 14.3 per cent of the popular vote.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attends the Commonwealth Day Service 2020 on March 9, 2020 in London, England. Photo / Getty Images

Meghan got the highest Google search volume of all royals - an average of more than six million searches a month.

Kate Middleton had the highest quantity of Instagram hashtags and followers.

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge visits Cardiff Castle on December 8, 2020 in Cardiff, Wales. Photo / Getty Images

Prince Harry ranked fourth in the survey, before his older brother, Prince William.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew was named the least popular UK royal in the world, with a score of just 1.2 per cent.

Prince Andrew, Duke of York. Photo / Getty Images

"It has been an eventful year for us all, and the royal family are no exception," OnBuy said.

"Beginning the year in the dawn of the Prince Andrew scandal and ending it with the fourth much-debated season of The Crown, the royal family has remained a global spectacle during 2020."