96 Fun Facts About Flags of the World

Which country's flag features a red 11-pointed maple leaf on a white square between two red bands?

The design by historian George Stanley, modelled on the Royal Military College flag, first flew on 15 February 1965, now marked as National Flag of Canada Day; the leaf's eleven points have no official meaning.

Which country is the only one in the world with a non-rectangular national flag?

Nepal's flag is two stacked pennants, a moon on the upper and a sun on the lower, and it is also the only national flag taller than it is wide.

Which country's flag is a simple red disc on a white background?

Japan's flag, officially the Nisshōki and popularly the Hinomaru, shows a red sun disc on white; the 1999 flag-and-anthem law set the disc at dead centre, whereas the 1870 specification placed it slightly toward the hoist.

Which colour is not on the flag of France?

When the tricolour was adopted in 1790 the red band was nearest the pole; the order was reversed to the modern blue-white-red in 1794.

Which Scandinavian country has a red flag with a white cross?

Legend says the Dannebrog fell from the sky during a 1219 battle in Estonia; Guinness recognises it as the oldest national flag in continuous use, dating its record from 1625.

Which country's flag has the Union Jack plus a large white seven-pointed 'Commonwealth Star'?

Australia's flag pairs the Union Jack with the seven-pointed Commonwealth Star; the star had six points for the federating states until a seventh for the territories was added in 1908, the design winning a 1901 competition.

What do the 50 stars on the American flag represent?

The current 50-star layout was adopted in 1960 after Hawaii joined; a 17-year-old, Robert Heft, had designed it as a school project and reportedly received a B-minus until it was accepted.

Which African country's flag is a green, white, and green vertical tricolor?

Nigeria's green-white-green flag came from student Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi's winning entry in a 1959 competition of almost 3,000 designs; judges removed his red quarter-sun before adoption at independence on 1 October 1960.

Which country's flag features a large yellow five-pointed star centered on a red background?

Vietnam's flag, a yellow five-pointed star centred on red, became the flag of the reunified country in 1976; its points are read as five classes — intellectuals, farmers, workers, entrepreneurs and soldiers.

What word, coined by Whitney Smith and first printed in 1959, names the study of flags?

Vexillology joins Latin vexillum, the square banner of Roman cavalry, to Greek -logia; American scholar Whitney Smith coined it in 1957 and it first appeared in print in 1959.

What animal appears on the flag of Wales?

The Welsh flag features a red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch) on a green and white background. The dragon has been associated with Wales for centuries and appears in Arthurian legend.

Which two countries have square-shaped national flags?

Switzerland and Vatican City fly the only square national flags; Switzerland's cross has arms one-sixth longer than wide by an 1889 federal definition, and the Vatican's yellow-and-white flag dates from 7 June 1929.

Which Nordic country's flag is a blue cross on a white field?

Finland's blue cross on white was adopted in May 1918, months after independence from Russia; the colours are popularly read as the blue of the lakes and the white of winter snow.

Which country's flag shows a single white crescent and star on a plain red background?

Turkey's flag is based on an 18th-century flag of the Ottoman Empire, and its white crescent and star on red make it one of the world's most recognisable.

Which country's flag features a blue Star of David on a white background with blue horizontal stripes?

Israel's flag, a blue Star of David between two blue stripes echoing the tallit prayer shawl, descends from a flag flown at Rishon LeZion in 1885 and adopted by the Zionist movement in 1897, half a century before the state.

Which country has the only national flag that is different on its front and back sides?

Paraguay's flag carries the national seal on the front and the Treasury seal — a lion beneath a Phrygian cap with the motto 'Paz y Justicia' — on the back, a quirk from the dictatorship of José de Francia (1814–1840).

What weapon is depicted on the flag of Mozambique?

The AK-47 rifle, crossed with a hoe over an open book, stands for defence, agriculture and education; it has drawn repeated calls for removal since multiparty politics began in 1990, and a 2005 design contest failed to replace it.

Which Pacific nation's flag shows a gold frigatebird over a rising sun and three wavy stripes?

Kiribati's flag is lifted almost unchanged from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands colony's 1937 coat of arms; its three white waves stand for the Gilbert, Phoenix and Line groups and the frigatebird for command of the sea.

What celestial objects appear on the flag of New Zealand?

The Southern Cross appears as four red stars edged in white, a design first approved in 1869 and made the national flag in 1902; Australia's flag shows the same constellation with five white stars.

Which country's flag centres on an eagle perched on a cactus devouring a serpent?

The Aztecs were told to settle where they saw the omen; they found it on an island in Lake Texcoco and built Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City, there. The bird lost its crown when Mexico became a republic.

Which European country's flag is identical to Indonesia's flag but with the colors reversed?

White and red were formally adopted as Poland's national colours in 1831; Monaco's flag, red over white, is the one that actually matches Indonesia's, differing only in proportions.

What text appears on the flag of Saudi Arabia?

The shahada is written above a sword; because the creed is holy the flag is made with identical front and back so the Arabic reads correctly, is never flown at half-mast, and is kept off T-shirts and footballs.

Which country's flag features a red circle on a green background?

Bangladesh's red disc sits slightly toward the hoist so it looks centred when the flag flies; the 1971 Liberation War version carried a yellow map of the country inside the red circle, dropped in 1972.

Which Middle Eastern country's flag has a green cedar tree across its central white stripe?

Lebanon's flag, adopted by constitutional amendment on 7 December 1943, bears a green cedar on its central white stripe; the constitution specifies a green cedar, though older versions often showed a brown trunk.

How many points does the star on the flag of Morocco have?

The green pentagram, read as the five pillars of Islam, was added by sultan Yusef in 1915; the plain red flag it replaced dated to the 17th-century Alaouite dynasty.

Which country's flag features a trident head?

Barbados's black trident head comes from the colonial badge, where Britannia held Poseidon's trident; showing only the head with the shaft snapped off symbolises the break from Britain at independence on 30 November 1966.

What is the most common color found on national flags around the world?

Red is the most common flag colour, appearing on roughly three-quarters of national flags and usually read as courage, revolution or blood; white is the runner-up and blue a distant third.

Which country's flag shows a copper-coloured outline of the country above two olive branches?

Cyprus's flag shows the island in copper, recalling the ore deposits that may have given it its name, above two olive branches for peace between Greek and Turkish Cypriots; the 1960 design avoids Greece's blue and Turkey's red.

Which country's flag has light blue, white and light blue bands with a sun bearing a human face?

The Sun of May was added in 1818 by an engraver descended from Inca nobility, and copies the sun on the country's first coin of 1813; the same emblem sits in the canton of Uruguay's flag.

From 1977 to 2011, which country's national flag was a single plain colour with no design?

Gaddafi adopted the plain green banner in 1977, green being the colour of his 'Green Book' and of Islam; after his fall in 2011 Libya reverted to the red-black-green tricolour of 1951.

From top to bottom, what are the colours of the three horizontal stripes on the German flag?

Black, red, and gold were the colours of the 1848 revolutionaries and the Weimar Republic; in 1949 the Federal Republic pointedly chose that democratic tradition over the Empire's black-white-red.

Which Asian country's flag has a white crescent and star on dark green with a white vertical stripe?

Pakistan's flag was adopted on 11 August 1947, three days before independence; its green field stands for the Muslim majority and the white hoist stripe for religious minorities.

Which Central American country has a flag with a coat of arms featuring five volcanoes?

The five volcanoes stand for the five members of the 1820s Federal Republic of Central America; Nicaragua's flag has the same layout and the same five peaks, which caused comment the day El Salvador's was first hoisted in 1912.

What bird appears on the flag of Albania?

The two-headed bird comes from the arms of the Kastrioti family of Skanderbeg, who led the 15th-century revolt against the Ottomans; Albanians call their country Shqipëri, popularly glossed as 'land of the eagles'.

Which African country's flag bears a Maasai shield and two crossed spears?

Kenya's 1963 flag takes its black, red and green from the KANU party flag, adding thin white edges for peace; the Maasai shield and crossed spears stand for the defence of freedom.

Which Central American country's flag is the only national flag with humans as a major design element?

Belize's flag, adopted at independence in 1981, shows two woodcutters beside a mahogany tree; its red border stripes were added for the opposition UDP, whose supporters objected to the ruling PUP's blue and white.

Which Caribbean nation's flag features a sisserou parrot, one of the few flags with purple?

Dominica's sisserou, the imperial amazon, is endemic to the island and critically endangered; the ten green stars around it stand for Dominica's ten parishes, and the flag was adopted at independence in 1978.

Which flag has a red field and a blue canton bearing a white sun with twelve rays?

Taiwan's flag keeps the 'Blue Sky with a White Sun' canton that revolutionary Lu Hao-tung designed in 1895; the sun's twelve rays stand for the twelve months and the twelve traditional two-hour periods of the day.

Which African country's flag features a black star on a horizontal red, gold, and green tricolor?

Ghana's black star was borrowed from Marcus Garvey's Black Star Line shipping company and gives the national football team, the Black Stars, its nickname; Theodosia Okoh designed the flag for independence in 1957.

Which Nordic country's flag is a yellow cross on a blue field?

Blue and yellow have been Swedish colours since at least the royal arms of 1275, and Sweden's is one of only five national flags with the unusual 5:8 ratio, alongside Argentina, Guatemala, Palau and Poland.

Which country's flag is often confused with that of Chad because they are nearly identical?

Chad adopted its blue-yellow-red tricolour in 1959, when Romania's still carried a communist emblem; after Romania dropped the emblem in 1989 the two became near-identical, and Chad complained to the UN about it in 2004.

Which country's flag puts a 24-spoke Buddhist Dharma wheel at its centre?

India's 24-spoke Ashoka Chakra, taken from the Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath, replaced the spinning wheel of the Congress party flag when Nehru proposed the design on 22 July 1947.

Which country's flag features a red and white checkered shield?

Croatia's šahovnica has 25 red and white fields, and which colour starts has itself been political: the wartime Ustaše version began with white, so the 1990 design deliberately starts with red.

Which country's flag sets its coat of arms on an armillary sphere over green and red?

Portugal's flag, adopted on 30 June 1911 after the 1910 republican revolution, places the national arms on a gold armillary sphere — the navigators' instrument of the Age of Discovery — over unequal green and red fields.

Which country's red-white-blue tricolour is almost identical to Luxembourg's, differing mainly in a darker blue?

The Netherlands' flag evolved from the orange-white-blue Prince's Flag of the 1570s into red-white-blue by the mid-17th century, making it the oldest tricolour in use; Luxembourg's lighter-blue colours come independently from its coat of arms.

Which country's flag has a golden lion holding a sword, with a bo leaf in each corner?

Sri Lanka's lion and maroon field stand for the Sinhalese, the four bo leaves for Buddhist virtues, and the green and orange hoist stripes, added in 1951, for the Muslim and Tamil minorities.

Which Pacific nation's flag shows a yellow bird of paradise on red and black diagonals?

Papua New Guinea's flag was drawn in 1971 by 15-year-old schoolgirl Susan Karike and adopted that July, beating a vertical tricolour proposed by the Australian administration; the bird of paradise and Southern Cross sit on red and black.

Which country's flag, a gold diagonal cross on green and black, is the only sovereign flag with no red, white or blue?

Jamaica's flag was first drawn with horizontal stripes but looked too like Tanganyika's, so a saltire was chosen instead; since Mauritania added red bands in 2017 it is the only national flag without red, white or blue.

Which European flag has a white double cross on a blue hill over a white-blue-red tricolor?

Slovakia's arms, added in 1992 partly to stop the flag being confused with Russia's and Slovenia's, show the double cross on three peaks read as the Tatra, Fatra and Mátra ranges — the last of which lies in Hungary.

Which country's flag is red with five yellow stars in its upper hoist corner?

China's flag, first raised on 1 October 1949, sets one large and four small yellow stars in the upper hoist corner of a red field; designer Zeng Liansong's large star stands for the Communist Party.

Which country's flag is a plain bicolour of blue above yellow?

Ukraine's flag is blue above yellow; the Verkhovna Rada adopted it on 28 January 1992, reviving the colours flown by the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1918, popularly read as sky over wheat fields.

What are the colors of the Italian flag?

Il Tricolore has three equal vertical bands of green, white and red with green at the hoist. Like other tricolours it was inspired by the French flag, and it is defined in Article 12 of the Italian Constitution.

What color is the cross on the flag of Switzerland?

The Swiss flag is a white Greek cross on red, and it is square rather than rectangular. The emblem of the Red Cross is the Swiss flag with the colours switched.

Which country's flag has a yellow band twice as tall as its two red bands?

Spain's flag has a yellow band twice the height of each red band, a pattern Charles III chose in 1785 for a naval ensign easily told apart at sea; it became the national flag in 1843.

Which country's flag centres a red-and-blue circle flanked by four black trigrams?

South Korea's Taegukgi shows a red-and-blue taegeuk circle between four black trigrams from the I Ching — heaven, earth, water and fire; the design was first adopted as Korea's flag in 1883.

How many stripes are on the flag of the United States?

The US flag has 13 alternating red and white stripes, representing the original 13 colonies that declared independence from Britain in 1776. The number of stripes has remained constant since 1818.

Which country's flag is a vertical tricolour of black, yellow and red?

Belgium's black, yellow and red vertical tricolour was adopted on 23 January 1831, the year after independence; the colours come from the arms of the Duchy of Brabant, a gold lion with red claws and tongue on black.

Which African country's flag has eleven red and white stripes and a single white star?

Liberia's flag, adopted in 1847 by settlers freed from the United States, has eleven red and white stripes for the signers of its declaration of independence and a single white star on a blue canton.

The five interlocking rings on the Olympic flag represent what?

The five rings stand for the five inhabited continents — Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania, the Americas counted as one; Pierre de Coubertin designed the flag in 1913 and it was first flown at the 1920 Antwerp Games.

What motto is written across the flag of Brazil?

'Ordem e Progresso' (Order and Progress) comes from Auguste Comte's positivist motto; it runs on a curved white band across the blue disc of the starry sky, which includes the Southern Cross.

The emblem on the United Nations flag shows a world map surrounded by branches of which tree?

The olive branches are a symbol of peace; the white map is an azimuthal equidistant projection centred on the North Pole, set on a light-blue field, and the emblem was approved in 1946.

Which Caribbean flag sets a white star on a red triangle beside blue and white stripes?

Cuba's Lone Star flag, designed in 1849 by Narciso López and made official at independence in 1902, sets a white star on a red triangle beside three blue and two white stripes.

Which country's flag shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of the country on a blue field?

Adopted on the day of the 2008 declaration of independence, the six stars stand for Kosovo's six major ethnic groups: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Romani and Gorani.

Which Nordic country's flag is a blue cross edged in white on a red field?

Norway's flag was designed by Fredrik Meltzer and adopted by the Storting in 1821; Meltzer laid a blue cross over the Danish Dannebrog so the flag carried red, white and blue, the colours of liberty.

The Pan-African colors of red, yellow/gold, and green were inspired by the flag of which country?

Ethiopia's green, yellow, and red tricolor inspired the Pan-African color scheme used by many African nations. Ethiopia was one of only two African countries (along with Liberia) that were never colonized, making it a symbol of African independence.

Which South American flag pairs a white star on blue with white and red bands?

Chile's flag, adopted on 18 October 1817 during the war of independence, places a white star on a blue canton with a white band beside it and a red band below; the star gives it the name La Estrella Solitaria.

In 2016 New Zealand voted to keep its flag over an alternative design featuring which plant?

Kyle Lockwood's black, white and blue silver fern design lost 43.3% to 56.7%. The existing flag, with the Union Jack and Southern Cross, stayed.

Which colour is officially a different shade on the near-identical flags of Chad and Romania?

Chad specifies indigo while Romania long specified cobalt blue. Chad asked the United Nations to examine the similarity in 2004.

Which country's flag places the gold Eagle of Saladin on a red-white-black tricolour?

Egypt's flag sets the gold Eagle of Saladin on the central white band of the red, white and black Arab Liberation colours; this version was adopted on 4 October 1984.

What does the green color in the Irish tricolor flag represent?

Green stands for Roman Catholics and orange for Protestants, with white for the hoped-for union between them.

Which Central American country's coat of arms, shown on its flag, includes a rainbow?

Nicaragua's arms show a rainbow over five volcanoes for the original five member states of Central America, and the rainbow's purple band makes it one of the few national flags to use purple, alongside Dominica's.

In flag terminology, what is a 'canton'?

A canton is a rectangular emblem in the upper hoist, usually taking up to a quarter of the flag. The best-known example is the starry blue 'union' on the US flag.

Which Indian Ocean country's flag fans five oblique bands out from its lower hoist corner?

Seychelles' flag, adopted in 1996, radiates five bands of blue, yellow, red, white and green from the lower hoist corner, a design meant to suggest a young country moving into the future.

How many rays does the yellow sun on Kyrgyzstan's flag have?

Kyrgyzstan's sun has 40 rays for the 40 tribes united by the epic hero Manas; the lines crossing its centre depict the tunduk, the crown of a yurt, and the flag was adopted in 1992.

The Jolly Roger typically features a skull and crossbones on what colour background?

The classic Jolly Roger features a white skull and crossbones on a black background, used by various pirates in the early 18th century. A red 'No Quarter' flag was actually more feared, as it meant no mercy would be shown.

Per the Council of Europe, what do the twelve stars on the flag of Europe stand for?

The Council of Europe, which adopted the flag on 8 December 1955, says the twelve stars symbolise perfection and entirety, not member states, so the flag never changed as the EU grew; the EU took it up in 1985.

Which Pacific nation's flag shows a red cross in a white canton on a red field?

Tonga's flag, adopted in 1875 under King George Tupou I, places a red couped cross in a white canton on red for the kingdom's Christianity; the 1875 constitution declares the flag may never be altered.

Which country's 1994 flag uses six colours in a Y-shaped design?

South Africa's flag, adopted in 1994 with the end of apartheid, uses black, gold, green, white, red and blue; its Y-shaped pall stands for diverse elements converging in unity.

Which country's flag is a single white five-pointed star centred on a light blue field?

Somalia's flag, adopted in 1954 while the territory was under UN trusteeship, took its light blue from the United Nations flag; the star's five points stand for the five regions where Somalis live.

Which Pacific nation's flag uses a gold stripe for the Equator and a star for its position just south of it?

Nauru's white twelve-pointed star, one point per original tribe, sits just below the gold stripe that marks the Equator, showing the island's position about one degree south of it; the flag dates from independence in 1968.

How many stars did Brazil's flag have when first adopted in 1889, before growing to 27?

The 1889 flag carried 21 stars, one per state plus the Federal District; stars were added in 1960, 1968 and 1992 as new states were created, reaching 27, each drawn in a size matching the real star's brightness.

In which year was Nepal's distinctive double-pennant flag standardised and adopted?

Nepal's double-pennant flag was standardised on 16 December 1962, alongside a new constitution, by civil engineer Shankar Nath Rimal at King Mahendra's request; the constitution spells out its geometric construction step by step.

Which king proclaimed the first Union Flag?

James VI and I proclaimed the first Union Flag on 12 April 1606, three years after uniting the crowns of Scotland and England; the present design added St Patrick's red saltire after the Act of Union 1800.

What do the horizontal stripes on the flag of Uruguay represent?

Uruguay's nine stripes stand for its nine original departments at independence; the design, adopted in 1830, was modelled on the US flag, and the Sun of May in the canton recalls the May Revolution of 1810.

By popular interpretation, Greece's nine stripes stand for the syllables of which phrase?

'Freedom or Death' — Eleftheria i Thanatos — has nine syllables: five for the blue stripes (E-lef-the-ri-a) and four for the white (i Tha-na-tos); the stripes have no official meaning, and the flag was adopted in 1978.

How many stripes and star points does Malaysia's flag, the Jalur Gemilang, have?

The Jalur Gemilang's 14 stripes and 14-point star stand for the 13 states plus the federal territories, with the crescent for Islam; the flag reached this form in 1963 when Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined.

Which African kingdom's flag shows a black-and-white shield and two spears on a red band?

Eswatini's flag was designed by King Sobhuza II from the military flag he gave the Swazi Pioneer Corps in 1941 and adopted in 1968; the shield's black and white stand for the peaceful coexistence of races.

Which bird stands in the white disc at the centre of Uganda's flag?

The crested crane, Uganda's national bird, was inherited from the colonial badge on the protectorate's Blue Ensign; the flag itself, six black-yellow-red stripes, was adopted at independence on 9 October 1962.

Which country's flag shows a soapstone bird above a red star on a white hoist triangle?

The bird copies a statuette found at the Great Zimbabwe ruins and first appeared on the Southern Rhodesian coat of arms in 1924. The layout follows the ruling ZANU-PF party flag.

How many times is 'Allahu Akbar' written along the band edges of Iran's flag?

The phrase appears 22 times — eleven along the green band and eleven along the red — for 22 Bahman, the Iranian calendar date of the 1979 revolution's victory; the flag was adopted in 1980.

Which Caribbean flag carries a nutmeg in its hoist triangle?

Grenada's flag, designed by Anthony C. George for independence in 1974, kept the nutmeg from the temporary flag used since 1967 and added seven stars for the country's parishes.

Which Caribbean flag is a cerulean blue field with a golden triangle over a white-edged black one?

Saint Lucia's flag was designed by artist Dunstan St Omer for associated statehood in 1967 and kept at independence in 1979 with only minor changes to the blue shade and triangle sizes; the triangles evoke the twin Pitons.

What do the nine yellow stars on Tuvalu's flag represent?

A 1995 republican-leaning redesign dropped the Union Jack and cut the stars to eight, a nod to the name meaning 'eight standing together', but the original was restored in 1997.

Which country's flag signals a state of war when flown with its red band on top?

The Philippines flies its flag with the red band uppermost in wartime and the blue in peace; the sun's eight rays stand for the eight provinces that first rose against Spain in 1896.

Which is the only national flag to carry English text, the words 'For Gallantry'?

Malta's George Cross, awarded by George VI in 1942 for the island's wartime endurance, bears the words 'For Gallantry'; at independence in 1964 its blue canton was replaced by a red edging.

Which national bird perches on the coat of arms at the centre of Guatemala's flag?

The resplendent quetzal, Guatemala's national bird, perches atop the arms with a scroll dated 15 September 1821, the day of Central American independence; the bird had earlier appeared on the emblem of the 1830s state of Los Altos.