# FlagDB - Full Flag Reference > Descriptions and histories for all 365 flags in FlagDB, as plain text. Index with URLs: https://www.flagdb.com/llms.txt ## Countries ### The Flag of Afghanistan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/afghanistan Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan Last updated: 2026-04-21 The flag of Afghanistan features three vertical stripes of black, red, and green, from the hoist side to the fly side, with a national emblem in the center. The black color represents its troubled 19th-century history as a protectorate, red symbolizes the blood shed for independence, and green signifies hope and prosperity. The central emblem includes elements such as a mosque with its mihrab facing Mecca, sheaves of wheat, and the date of the Afghan Declaration of Independence in the Solar Hijri calendar. History: Afghanistan's flag has changed with almost every change of government. The current tricolor was adopted in 2002, after the fall of the Taliban regime, and modified slightly in 2004. It follows the pattern set by flags used since 1928, under King Amanullah Khan and the republics that came after, with the emblem redrawn each time. The country has had more than 20 different flags since the early 20th century, more than any other state in the same period. ### The Flag of Albania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/albania Adopted: 1992-04-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albania Last updated: 2026-05-08 The flag of Albania, known as the 'Flamuri Kombëtar', is a red field with a black double-headed eagle at its center. Red stands for bravery, strength, and valor. The black double-headed eagle is the emblem of the Albanian state and represents freedom and the heroism of the Albanian people. History: The flag dates to the 15th century and Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. The double-headed eagle was a Kastrioti family symbol, and Skanderbeg adopted it for his standard when he declared Albanian independence in 1443. It has been tied to Albanian nationalism ever since. The flag was modified repeatedly over the following centuries, and its use was often suppressed under foreign rule. After Albania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire on November 28, 1912, the black eagle on a red field was reinstated as the national symbol. Governments and ideologies changed, but the core design did not. The current version was officially adopted on April 7, 1992, after the fall of the communist regime. ### The Flag of Algeria URL: https://www.flagdb.com/algeria Adopted: 1962-07-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algeria Last updated: 2026-04-21 The national flag of Algeria consists of two equal vertical halves, green on the hoist side and white on the fly side, separated by a red, five-pointed star centered within a red crescent. The green represents Islam, the white symbolizes purity and peace, the red crescent and star are traditional symbols of Islam, which is the nation's predominant religion. History: The flag of Algeria was officially adopted on July 3, 1962, after the country gained independence from France. The design of the flag is closely linked to the Algerian War of Independence and the broader struggle against colonialism in the Arab world. The flag's origins can be traced to the Algerian nationalist movement of the early 20th century, particularly to the Party of the Algerian People (Parti du Peuple Algérien - PPA) and later the National Liberation Front (Front de Libération Nationale - FLN), which led the fight for independence. The crescent and star are traditional symbols of Islam and have been used in flags of various Islamic countries, symbolizing a connection to the broader Islamic community, while the colors green, white, and red have deep cultural and historical significance in the region. ### The Flag of American Samoa URL: https://www.flagdb.com/american-samoa Adopted: 1960-04-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa Last updated: 2026-05-09 The flag of American Samoa has a dark blue field crossed by a red triangle edged in white, pointing toward the hoist. Inside the triangle a bald eagle holds a war club and a fly-whisk, one American emblem carrying two Samoan ones. The red, white, and blue are the colors of the United States, and they mark American Samoa's ties to it. History: American Samoa adopted its flag on April 27, 1960. Before that the territory had no flag of its own, and the Stars and Stripes stood in for it. The design pairs the bald eagle, for American Samoa's status as an unincorporated U.S. territory, with the war club and fly-whisk that Samoan chiefs carry as marks of authority and wisdom. Together they show the blend of American and Samoan culture and the territory's position under U.S. sovereignty. ### The Flag of Andorra URL: https://www.flagdb.com/andorra Adopted: 1971-08-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra Last updated: 2026-05-09 Andorra's flag is a vertical tricolor of blue, yellow, and red, with the yellow band wider than the other two and the national coat of arms in its center. The arms carry a mitre, a staff, and two cows, marking the country's historical ties to both France and Spain. History: Andorra adopted its flag on August 27, 1866, though the current design with the coat of arms was settled on July 25, 1993, alongside the constitution that made the country a parliamentary democracy. The colors draw on those of France and Spain, the two powers that have shared the co-principality of Andorra. The arms in the center mark Andorran sovereignty, and the flag as a whole belongs to a small country in the Pyrenees that has spent centuries balancing between two larger neighbors. ### The Flag of Angola URL: https://www.flagdb.com/angola Adopted: 1975-11-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angola Last updated: 2026-04-22 Angola's flag has two horizontal bands, red over black, with a central emblem of a half cogwheel crossed by a machete under a star. The emblem stands for the country's agricultural and industrial workers, and the flag as a whole for the independence struggle and the promise of progress that followed it. History: Angola adopted its flag on November 11, 1975, the day it became independent of Portugal. The design comes from the flag of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the leading force in the independence war. Red represents the blood shed by Angolans under colonial rule and in the fight for independence and national defense; black represents the African continent. The cogwheel and machete come from socialist iconography and reflect the government's politics at independence, and the gold star follows the star on the Soviet flag, marking solidarity with socialist and anti-imperialist movements. The flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Anguilla URL: https://www.flagdb.com/anguilla Adopted: 1990-05-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anguilla Last updated: 2026-04-22 Anguilla's flag is a Blue Ensign: the Union Jack in the canton and the territory's coat of arms in the fly. The arms show three orange dolphins in a circle on a white ground, standing for endurance, unity, and strength. The blue field is the Caribbean Sea. History: Anguilla adopted its flag on May 30, 1990. The island had flown a similar flag before that, without the coat of arms. Adding the arms was a step toward asserting a distinct island identity, and the flag's history runs alongside Anguilla's colonial past and its push for self-determination. The dolphins began as an unofficial design flown during the 1967 revolution, and Queen Elizabeth II granted them as Anguilla's arms by royal warrant on November 27, 1990, which is also what authorized the defaced Blue Ensign that had gone up six months earlier. The flag marks both the connection to the British Commonwealth and the island's own heritage. ### The Flag of Antigua and Barbuda URL: https://www.flagdb.com/antigua-and-barbuda Adopted: 1967-02-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_and_Barbuda Last updated: 2026-04-23 The flag of Antigua and Barbuda has a red field with an inverted triangle of black, blue, and white stripes, topped by a half sun whose rays spread across the upper edge. The sun is the dawn of a new era, the black is the African heritage of the islands' people, the blue is hope, and the white is the sandy beaches. History: Antigua and Barbuda adopted its flag on February 27, 1967, after a national flag competition held as the islands moved toward independence. The winning design came from Reginald Samuel, an artist and sculptor known across the islands. Its symbolism was meant to carry the hopes of a country about to govern itself, and the flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Argentina URL: https://www.flagdb.com/argentina Adopted: 1812-02-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina Last updated: 2026-04-23 Argentina's flag has three horizontal bands of equal width, light blue at the top and bottom and white in the middle, with a golden sun and a human face, the 'Sun of May', at the center of the white band. The colors are usually read as the sky and the clouds, and the sun refers to the sun breaking through cloud during the May Revolution of 1810. History: Manuel Belgrano, a leader of the independence movement, created the flag and first raised it on February 27, 1812, during the war against Spain. The original design had no Sun of May; the sun was added in 1818. It also appears on the national coat of arms, draws on the Inca sun god Inti, and refers to the May Revolution that began on May 25, 1810 and led to independence from Spain. The flag has been modified in small ways since, but the colors and the sun have stayed as they were. ### The Flag of Armenia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/armenia Adopted: 1990-08-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenia Last updated: 2026-04-24 Armenia's flag has three horizontal stripes of equal width: red on top, blue in the middle, orange at the bottom. Red is read as the spirit of the Armenian people, blue as their peaceful sky, and orange as the fertile land. The aspect ratio is 1:2. History: Armenia adopted the current flag on August 24, 1990, a year before independence from the Soviet Union on September 21, 1991. The design goes back to the First Republic of Armenia, founded on May 28, 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. The tricolor was used until 1922, when Armenia became part of the Transcaucasian SFSR and then the Soviet Union, and the flag was replaced several times over with communist symbols and colors. Restoring the original design in 1990 was one of the first acts of the return to sovereignty. ### The Flag of Aruba URL: https://www.flagdb.com/aruba Adopted: 1976-03-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aruba Last updated: 2026-04-24 Aruba's flag has a light blue field, officially 'Larkspur' or U.N. blue, with two narrow yellow stripes near the bottom and a four-pointed red star outlined in white in the canton. The blue is the sky and the sea around the island, the yellow stripes are its sandy beaches, and the red star is Aruba itself, red soil ringed by white sand. The white outline stands for the purity and honesty of Arubans. History: Aruba adopted its flag on March 18, 1976, after a design competition held as part of the celebrations for the island's flag and anthem. That date is now a national holiday, Flag Day. The design was chosen to mark Aruba's push for autonomy and its own cultural identity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Before 1976, as part of the Netherlands Antilles, Aruba had no separate flag and used the Antillean one for official purposes. Adopting its own was a step toward the self-governance it secured in 1986, when it became a separate entity within the Kingdom. ### The Flag of Australia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/australia Adopted: 1901-09-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia Last updated: 2026-04-25 The flag of Australia is a defaced Blue Ensign: a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton (the upper hoist quarter) and a large white seven-pointed Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. The fly carries the Southern Cross, five white stars made up of four larger seven-pointed stars and one smaller five-pointed one. History: Australia's flag was first flown in 1901, chosen from a competition that drew 32,823 entries after the Australian colonies federated. The original design had a six-pointed Commonwealth Star, and only the first four stars of the Southern Cross had seven points, the fifth being a smaller five-pointed star. A slight modification followed in 1903, and in 1908 the Commonwealth Star gained a seventh point for the territories. The current specifications were standardised in 1954, after the Australian government passed the Flags Act, fixing the dimensions and design elements as they stand today. ### The Flag of Austria URL: https://www.flagdb.com/austria Adopted: 1918 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria Last updated: 2026-04-25 Austria's flag has three horizontal bands of equal width, red at the top and bottom with white between them. It is among the oldest national flags in the world, and the red-white-red triband has stood for Austria through eight centuries of changing states. History: The Austrian flag's origins go back to the late 12th century. Legend traces the design to the Siege of Acre in 1191, during the Third Crusade, when Duke Leopold V's white battle tunic was soaked with blood and only a band under his belt stayed white. The first documented use of the red-white-red colors comes from 1230. Red-white-red came back into general use in 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire dissolved at the end of the First World War, and the new republic made it the official national flag by the law of October 21, 1919. It was then banned during the Anschluss with Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945. Austria restored it after the Second World War and has flown it since. ### The Flag of Azerbaijan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/azerbaijan Adopted: 1918-11-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azerbaijan Last updated: 2026-04-26 The flag of Azerbaijan has three equal horizontal bands of blue, red, and green, with a white crescent and eight-pointed star at the centre of the red band. Blue stands for the country's Turkic heritage, red for progress and democracy, and green for Islam. The crescent and star are traditional Islamic symbols, and Islam is the majority religion in Azerbaijan. History: Azerbaijan first adopted this flag on 9 November 1918, under the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the first democratic and secular republic in the Muslim world. It lasted only until April 1920, when Azerbaijan was absorbed into the Soviet Union and Soviet-style designs replaced it. After the Soviet Union collapsed and Azerbaijan regained independence, the original tricolour was restored as the national flag on 5 February 1991, and it has not changed since. ### The Flag of Bahrain URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bahrain Adopted: 2002-02-14 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain Last updated: 2026-04-27 The flag of Bahrain has a white band along the hoist, separated from a larger red field by a serrated line of five white triangles. The five points stand for the five pillars of Islam, and the zigzag is what sets Bahrain's flag apart from those of its neighbors. History: Bahrain's earliest flags were plain red, a common choice across the Persian Gulf and associated with the Kharijite sect of Islam. After an 1820 treaty with the United Kingdom, Bahrain added a white stripe to signal peace and its treaty status. The serrated line between the two colors carried different numbers of points over the years, first 28, later 8. The current design was adopted in 2002 and fixed the count at five, one for each of the Five Pillars of Islam. ### The Flag of Bangladesh URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bangladesh Adopted: 1972-01-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh Last updated: 2026-04-27 The flag of Bangladesh is a deep green field with a red circle set slightly off-center toward the hoist. The green stands for the land itself. The red circle stands for the sun rising over Bengal and for the blood of those who died in the fight for independence. History: The flag of Bangladesh was adopted on January 17, 1972, shortly after the country won independence from Pakistan in the 1971 Liberation War. The original design came from a student, Shib Narayan Das, during the liberation movement. That version placed a golden map of the country beside the red circle. The map was hard to reproduce accurately, so it was removed, which left the design used today. ### The Flag of Barbados URL: https://www.flagdb.com/barbados Adopted: 1966-11-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbados Last updated: 2026-04-28 The flag of Barbados has three vertical panels, ultramarine on the outside and gold in the middle, with a black trident head centred on the gold. The blue stands for the sea and sky of Barbados and the gold for the sand of the island's beaches. The trident is broken, marking the break from colonial rule. History: The flag of Barbados was adopted on November 30, 1966, the day the country gained independence from the United Kingdom. Grantley W. Prescod designed it and won a national competition with the entry. The broken trident stands for the break from British colonial rule, while the colours point to the sea, sky, and sand of the island. The design has not changed since, and it is flown across Barbados and by Barbadians abroad. ### The Flag of Belarus URL: https://www.flagdb.com/belarus Adopted: 1995-06-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarus Last updated: 2026-04-29 The flag of Belarus has two horizontal stripes, red above and green below, with the red taking up rather more than half the flag. Along the hoist runs a vertical band of traditional Belarusian ornament, red on white, taken from folk embroidery. History: The current flag of Belarus was adopted on June 7, 1995, after a referendum. It replaced the white-red-white flag used since independence, and it revived a variant of the banner flown by the Byelorussian SSR between 1951 and 1991, minus the hammer and sickle. President Alexander Lukashenko presented the change as a way of settling the country's identity, though the design it restored was Soviet in origin. The ornamental band along the hoist comes from Belarusian folk embroidery. Despite its association with the Lukashenko government, this is the flag that represents Belarus internationally. ### The Flag of Belgium URL: https://www.flagdb.com/belgium Adopted: 1831-10-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium Last updated: 2026-04-28 The flag of Belgium is a vertical tricolor of black, yellow, and red. The colors come from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant, and the vertical layout follows the French Tricolor. Its official proportions are 13:15, which makes it almost square. History: Belgium adopted its flag shortly after winning independence from the Netherlands in 1830. The banner hoisted during the revolution had horizontal stripes; the layout was changed to vertical in 1831 to distinguish it from the Dutch flag. The black, yellow, and red come from the coat of arms of the Duchy of Brabant, whose colors had already been used in an earlier revolt against Austrian rule. The design has not changed since. ### The Flag of Belize URL: https://www.flagdb.com/belize Adopted: 1981-09-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belize Last updated: 2026-05-10 The flag of Belize is a royal blue field with narrow red stripes along the top and bottom. At the center sits the country's coat of arms inside a green wreath. It is one of the very few national flags to show human beings: two woodcutters, one Mestizo and one Creole, standing either side of a mahogany tree. History: Belize adopted its flag on September 21, 1981, the day it became independent from the United Kingdom. The design came from the winning entry in a national competition held ahead of independence. The blue and red are the colors of the country's two main political parties, and the coat of arms at the center dates to 1907, when the colony's economy still ran on logging. The red stripes were added late, so that the flag would represent both parties rather than only the one in power at independence. ### The Flag of Benin URL: https://www.flagdb.com/benin Adopted: 1959-11-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benin Last updated: 2026-04-29 The flag of Benin has two horizontal bands on the fly side, yellow above red, and a vertical green band at the hoist. The yellow stands for the savannahs of the north, the red for the blood shed by those who fought for Dahomey, the country's former name, and the green for hope and the vegetation of the south. History: Benin first adopted this flag on November 16, 1959, before full independence from France in 1960. It was replaced in 1975, when the country was renamed the People's Republic of Benin and the new Marxist-Leninist government introduced a green field with a red star in the upper hoist. After Benin moved away from Marxism-Leninism and restored multiparty democracy, the original design came back on August 1, 1990, and has flown since. ### The Flag of Bermuda URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bermuda Adopted: 1910-10-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda Last updated: 2026-05-10 The flag of Bermuda is a Red Ensign, a red field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist corner, marking the territory's ties to the United Kingdom. Towards the fly sits Bermuda's coat of arms: a red lion holding a shield that shows the wreck of the Sea Venture, the 1609 disaster that led to the island's colonization. History: Bermuda adopted the flag on October 4, 1910. The Red Ensign base is used across British territories and points to Bermuda's maritime history and its relationship with the United Kingdom. The coat of arms, granted by royal warrant, records the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda's reefs in 1609, which is how the island came to be settled at all. The design has been in continuous use since. ### The Flag of Bhutan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bhutan Adopted: 1969 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan Last updated: 2026-05-11 The flag of Bhutan is divided diagonally from the lower hoist corner, yellow in the upper triangle and orange in the lower. A white dragon lies across the dividing line, facing away from the hoist. The dragon is the Druk, or Thunder Dragon, and stands for the protection of the country. The yellow is the authority of the king, the orange the Buddhist tradition. History: Bhutan's flag has changed shape several times while keeping the dragon at its center. The first version appeared around 1947, and later revisions refined it. The current design was standardized in 1969. The Druk represents the Drukpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, which has shaped Bhutanese religious life since the 17th century, and the two colors set the king's secular authority alongside that religious tradition. ### The Flag of Bolivia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bolivia Adopted: 1825-08-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolivia Last updated: 2026-05-11 The flag of Bolivia has three horizontal stripes of equal width: red, yellow, and green from top to bottom. The state version carries the Bolivian coat of arms at the center of the yellow stripe. Bolivians call it the tricolor. History: Bolivia adopted the current flag on July 14, 1851, after several redesigns following independence from Spain in 1825. The red stripe stands for the blood shed by Bolivia's heroes for the republic, the yellow for the country's mineral wealth, and the green for the fertility of the land. The coat of arms was added in 1826 and has been modified since, most recently in 1963. It carries symbols of Bolivia's geography, its struggle for independence, and its natural resources. ### The Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bosnia-and-herzegovina Adopted: 1998-02-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovina Last updated: 2026-04-30 The flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina has a blue field with a yellow right triangle along the hoist side, and a line of white five-pointed stars running along the triangle's hypotenuse, seven full and two cut off at the top and bottom. The blue stands for Europe, the triangle for the three constituent peoples (Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs), and the stars, which echo the European Union flag, for continuity. History: The current flag was adopted on February 4, 1998, replacing the one used since independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. That earlier flag was mostly white and carried the arms of the medieval Kingdom of Bosnia, a blue shield with six golden fleur-de-lis in two rows. It was replaced because the country needed a symbol that did not favor any of its three main ethnic groups. The Office of the High Representative, which oversaw the peace agreement after the Bosnian War, chose the new design and imposed it by decree. ### The Flag of Botswana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/botswana Adopted: 1966-09-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana Last updated: 2026-04-30 The flag of Botswana is a light blue field with a horizontal black stripe across the center, framed above and below by thin white stripes. The blue stands for water, and specifically for rain, which matters a great deal in a semi-arid country. The black and white bands stand for racial harmony and echo the markings of the zebra, Botswana's national animal. History: Botswana adopted the flag on September 30, 1966, the day it became independent from the United Kingdom. It replaced the Union Jack, and its colors were chosen to represent all citizens, majority Tswana groups and minorities alike, rather than any party or liberation movement. The design has not changed since 1966. ### The Flag of Brazil URL: https://www.flagdb.com/brazil Adopted: 1889-11-19 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil Last updated: 2026-05-01 The flag of Brazil, the Bandeira do Brasil, is a green field with a large yellow rhombus at the center. Inside the rhombus sits a blue globe carrying 27 white stars, arranged as they appeared in the night sky over Rio de Janeiro, the Southern Cross among them, and a band with the national motto, Ordem e Progresso (Order and Progress). Each star stands for a Brazilian state, plus one for the Federal District. History: Brazil adopted the current flag on November 19, 1889, four days after the country proclaimed itself a republic and overthrew the monarchy. The design borrowed from the imperial flag but replaced the arms of the Empire of Brazil with the blue globe and motto. Minor changes followed in 1960, 1968, and 1992, each adding stars for newly created states and the Federal District. The green and yellow are usually explained as the country's forests and mineral wealth, though those readings were attached later; the colors came from the imperial coat of arms. ### The Flag of Brunei URL: https://www.flagdb.com/brunei Adopted: 1959-09-29 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei Last updated: 2026-05-01 The flag of Brunei has a yellow field crossed by two diagonal bands, white and black, that run from the top hoist side toward the fly. The national crest sits in red at the center. Yellow is the color of the Sultan of Brunei, the white band stands for purity, and the black band for Brunei's chief ministers. The crest gathers a flag, a royal umbrella, wings, hands and a crescent for Islam, along with the motto 'Always render service with God's guidance'. History: The flag of Brunei was adopted on September 29, 1959, the day the country's first written constitution was proclaimed and while it was still a British protectorate. The yellow field and the two diagonal stripes were already in use, having been settled in 1906; what 1959 added was the red national crest at the center. Nothing was changed when Brunei became fully independent from the United Kingdom on January 1, 1984, and the design has held ever since. The crest is built from Islamic and royal imagery, and the flag as a whole is a statement of allegiance to the Sultan and to Islam. ### The Flag of Bulgaria URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bulgaria Adopted: 1879-04-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria Last updated: 2026-05-02 The flag of Bulgaria has three horizontal bands of equal size: white on top, then green, then red. That order has been fixed since 1879. History: The current flag of Bulgaria was first adopted after the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), which ended Ottoman rule over the country. For a time the flag carried the coat of arms on the white stripe. That was removed in 1990, after the fall of the communist regime, in favor of the older and plainer design. White stands for peace, green for the fertility of the Bulgarian lands, and red for the courage of the people. The colors and their arrangement echo the Russian flag, a reminder of Russia's part in Bulgaria's liberation. ### The Flag of Burkina Faso URL: https://www.flagdb.com/burkina-faso Adopted: 1984-08-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkina_Faso Last updated: 2026-05-03 The flag of Burkina Faso has two horizontal bands, red over green, with a yellow five-pointed star in the center. Red stands for the revolution, green for the country's natural wealth, and the yellow star for the guiding light of the revolution. History: Adopted on August 4, 1984, after the coup d'état that brought Thomas Sankara to power, the flag of Burkina Faso was meant to mark a break with the colonial past and a turn toward socialism and unity. Its colors are the pan-African ones used by several other African countries as a sign of solidarity. The new flag arrived alongside the renaming of the country from the Republic of Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, 'the land of upright people' in Mossi and Dioula, the country's two major languages. Both changes came out of Sankara's argument for a self-reliant Burkina Faso, free of foreign influence and corruption. ### The Flag of Burundi URL: https://www.flagdb.com/burundi Adopted: 1967-06-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi Last updated: 2026-05-02 The flag of Burundi has a white saltire dividing the field into alternating red and green areas. At the center of the cross is a white disk with three solid red six-pointed stars outlined in green, arranged in a triangle. The stars stand for national unity, and the colors for the independence struggle, peace, and hope. History: The flag of Burundi was adopted on June 28, 1967, five years after independence from Belgian colonial rule on July 1, 1962. The first flag used a similar design but carried a karyenda, a traditional drum, where the stars now sit. The drum stood for royal authority. The 1967 redesign replaced it to suit a republic rather than a monarchy. The three stars stand for the three major ethnic groups of Burundi, the Hutu, Tutsi, and Twa, and for the national motto 'Unity, Work, Progress'. Nothing about the design has changed since. ### The Flag of Cambodia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cambodia Adopted: 1948 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodia Last updated: 2026-05-12 The flag of Cambodia has three horizontal bands: blue on top, red at double width in the middle, and blue at the bottom, with a white depiction of Angkor Wat centered on the red. The blue bands stand for royalty, the red for the nation, and Angkor Wat for integrity, justice, and heritage. History: The current flag of Cambodia was first adopted in 1948, shortly after the country gained independence from France, and it changed repeatedly through the decades of political upheaval that followed. It was re-adopted in its original form in 1993, after the restoration of the monarchy. The image of Angkor Wat makes it one of the few national flags anywhere to carry a building. ### The Flag of Cameroon URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cameroon Adopted: 1975-05-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cameroon Last updated: 2026-05-03 The flag of Cameroon has three vertical stripes of equal size, green, red and yellow from the hoist side to the fly side, with a yellow five-pointed star centered on the red. Green stands for the vegetation of the south, red for unity and independence, and yellow for the savannas of the north. The star is known as the 'star of unity'. History: The flag of Cameroon was adopted on May 20, 1975, after the country changed from a federation into a united republic. The earlier version, adopted at independence from France on January 1, 1960, used the same layout without the star. That first flag borrowed the format of the French Tricolore and filled it with the pan-African colors. The central star was added in 1975 to mark the merging of the English and French speaking regions into a single state. ### The Flag of Canada URL: https://www.flagdb.com/canada Adopted: 1965-02-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada Last updated: 2026-05-13 The flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf, is a red field with a white square at its center holding a stylized 11-pointed red maple leaf. The proportions are 1:2. Red and white are Canada's official colors. History: The national flag of Canada was inaugurated on February 15, 1965, replacing the Union Jack and the Canadian Red Ensign, which had served in various forms as the de facto flag of Canada. The process began in 1964 and ran through months of argument in Parliament and in public. A committee of the Canadian Parliament chose the final design, based on a concept by George F. G. Stanley and John Matheson. The maple leaf had been associated with Canada since the 18th century well before it reached the flag. February 15 is now marked each year as National Flag of Canada Day. ### The Flag of Cape Verde URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cape-verde Adopted: 1992-09-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Verde Last updated: 2026-05-04 The flag of Cape Verde is a horizontal tricolour of blue, white, and red. Blue stands for the ocean and sky, white for peace, and red for the struggle for independence. Ten yellow stars sit in a circle toward the hoist, one for each of the country's ten main islands. History: The current flag of Cape Verde was adopted on September 22, 1992, replacing the previous version that had been in use since its independence from Portugal on July 5, 1975. The original flag was heavily influenced by the flag of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), featuring horizontal bands of yellow, green, and red, along with a black star, which represented African freedom. The redesign in 1992 was part of a broader effort to establish a distinct national identity following the country's decision to pursue a more pluralistic democracy and move away from its previously close association with Guinea-Bissau. The new flag arrived alongside a new national anthem and a new constitution, part of a wider change in how the country presented itself at home and abroad. ### The Flag of Chad URL: https://www.flagdb.com/chad Adopted: 1959-11-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chad Last updated: 2026-05-05 The flag of Chad consists of a vertical tricolor of blue, yellow, and red. The blue symbolizes the sky, hope, and water; the yellow represents the sun and the desert in the north of the country; and the red stands for progress, unity, and the sacrifice of the nation's martyrs. Notably, the flag closely resembles Romania's flag, differing only in the shade of blue used. History: The flag of Chad was adopted on November 6, 1959, shortly before the country gained independence from France on August 11, 1960. The vertical tricolor format keeps a link to France, whose Tricolore uses blue, white, and red, while the gold center stripe comes from the pan-African palette associated with African independence. The close resemblance between the flags of Chad and Romania has come up in diplomatic exchanges over the years, but Chad has never changed its design. ### The Flag of Chile URL: https://www.flagdb.com/chile Adopted: 1817-10-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile Last updated: 2026-05-06 Chile's national flag, usually called La Estrella Solitaria (The Lone Star), has two unequal horizontal bands of white and red, with a blue square at the hoist the same height as the white band and a white five-pointed star at its center. Blue is the sky, white the snow of the Andes, and red the blood spilled to win independence. The star stands for progress and honor. History: Chile adopted the flag on October 18, 1817, during the fight for independence from Spain, which was won in 1818. Antonio Arcos designed the current version, though Minister José Ignacio Zenteno and the American Charles Wood Taylor have also been credited with a hand in it. The design changed several times in the republic's early years, but the star and the blue and red have been fixed since the early 19th century. The U.S. flag was one influence, and the colors point to the sky and to the Andes that shape Chile's geography. ### The Flag of China URL: https://www.flagdb.com/china Adopted: 1949-09-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China Last updated: 2026-05-06 The national flag of the People's Republic of China, known as the Five-star Red Flag, is a red field with five golden stars in the top left corner. One large star sits with four smaller ones in a semicircular arc beside it, each small star tilted so a point aims at the large one. Red is the color of the revolution, and the stars stand for the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. History: China adopted the flag on October 1, 1949, the day the People's Republic was founded. It came out of a nationwide design competition the new government launched in July 1949. Of the several thousand entries, the winner was by Zeng Liansong, an economist and artist from Shanghai. The committee made small changes to his original, but kept its core. The adoption came at the end of the Chinese Civil War and the establishment of a communist government, and the flag has been central to public life and state ceremony in China ever since. ### The Flag of Christmas Island URL: https://www.flagdb.com/christmas-island Adopted: 1986-01-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_Island Last updated: 2026-05-07 The flag of Christmas Island is divided diagonally from the upper hoist to the lower fly. The upper triangle is green and carries a golden bosun bird in flight; the lower triangle is blue and carries the white stars of the Southern Cross. A gold disc at the centre holds a green map of the island. The elements point to the island's wildlife, its position in the Southern Hemisphere, and its ties to Australia. History: The Christmas Island Assembly ran a design competition in 1986 to produce something that fit the island's culture, geography and history, and announced Tony Couch's winning entry on April 14 of that year. The design was used locally from then on, but it was not made official until January 26, 2002, when the territory's administrator declared it the flag of Christmas Island on Australia Day. Until then the island had no flag of its own and generally used the Australian flag, Australia having administered the territory since 1958. The winning entry built the island's identity out of its natural elements and its colonial connections. ### The Flag of Colombia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/colombia Adopted: 1861-11-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia Last updated: 2026-05-08 Colombia's flag has three horizontal stripes: yellow on top, blue in the middle, red at the bottom. The yellow takes up the whole upper half, and the blue and red each occupy a quarter, which is what sets it apart from most tricolors. History: Colombia adopted the flag on November 26, 1861. Its design came from the flag of Gran Colombia, the short-lived republic that covered much of northern South America and part of southern Central America between 1819 and 1831. The colors are usually read as the gold found in Colombia (yellow), the country's seas (blue), and the blood shed for independence (red). Francisco de Miranda, the forerunner of Colombian independence who first conceived the tricolor, meant something different by them: yellow for the New World, blue for the ocean dividing the New World from the Old, and red for the blood of heroes. ### The Flag of Comoros URL: https://www.flagdb.com/comoros Adopted: 2001-12-23 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comoros Last updated: 2026-05-07 The flag of Comoros has four horizontal stripes of equal width: from top to bottom, yellow, white, red, and blue. A green triangle at the hoist carries a white crescent and four white five-pointed stars along its edge. The stripes and the stars both stand for the four main islands, and the green and the crescent for Islam. History: Comoros settled on the current design in 2001, alongside the new federal constitution approved by referendum that December, and formally adopted it on January 7, 2002, at the end of a turbulent stretch of coups and changes of government. The design has been reworked several times since independence from France on July 6, 1975. An early version resembled the present one but included extra elements such as a red parabola. Each redesign followed a political shift. The four stars stand for the country's main islands, Grande Comore, Mohéli, Anjouan, and Mayotte, and Mayotte is contested, since France administers it. The yellow, white, red, and blue stripes stand for the same four islands, and the green triangle, the crescent and the stars point to the country's Islamic faith. ### The Flag of Costa Rica URL: https://www.flagdb.com/costa-rica Adopted: 1848-09-29 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica Last updated: 2026-05-14 The flag of Costa Rica has five horizontal stripes: blue at the top and bottom, then white, and a red stripe through the middle that is twice the height of the others. On the state version, the coat of arms sits toward the hoist side of the red stripe. Blue is read as the sky, opportunity, idealism and perseverance; white as peace, wisdom and happiness; and red as the blood shed for freedom and the warmth of the Costa Rican people. History: Costa Rica adopted the flag on November 27, 1906, but its origins go back to the First Republic in 1848. Pacifica Fernández, wife of the then head of state José María Castro Madriz, designed it under the influence of the French Revolution and the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity. The original was close to the current design, though it has been modified several times, particularly the coat of arms. The French Tricolor was the direct model, one sign of how much European politics shaped Central American independence. ### The Flag of Croatia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/croatia Adopted: 1990-12-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croatia Last updated: 2026-05-14 The flag of Croatia consists of three horizontal stripes in red, white, and blue, which are the Pan-Slavic colors representing freedom and revolutionary ideals. At the center of the flag is the coat of arms of Croatia, consisting of a shield with a red and white checkerboard pattern, above which are five smaller shields that represent the historical regions of Croatia. This distinctive checkerboard, known as the šahovnica, has been a symbol of Croatian kings since at least the 10th century. History: Croatia adopted the current design on December 21, 1990, as the country moved to declare independence from Yugoslavia. The red, white, and blue stripes come from the French Tricolor by way of the 19th-century Pan-Slavic movement, which pushed for unity among the Slavic peoples. The šahovnica is far older, with its earliest recorded use dating to 1495. Both the coat of arms and the flag have been reworked repeatedly over the centuries, each version tracking a change of regime. ### The Flag of Cuba URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cuba Adopted: 1849-05-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuba Last updated: 2026-05-15 The flag of Cuba consists of five horizontal stripes of blue and white, with a red equilateral triangle based on the hoist side bearing a white five-pointed star in the center. The blue stripes represent the three old divisions of the island, the white symbolizes purity, the red triangle stands for equality, fraternity, and freedom, and the star, known as 'La Estrella Solitaria' (The Lone Star), signifies independence. History: Narciso López, a Venezuelan-born general of Spanish descent fighting to break Cuba from Spanish rule, designed the flag in 1849. It was first raised on Cuban soil in the city of Cárdenas on May 19, 1850, more than half a century before the country became independent. Cuba adopted it as the national flag on May 20, 1902. ### The Flag of Curaçao URL: https://www.flagdb.com/curacao Adopted: 1984-07-02 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cura%C3%A7ao Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Curaçao is a blue field crossed by a horizontal yellow stripe set just below the midline, with two white five-pointed stars in the upper hoist. The proportions are 2:3, and the blue, yellow, and blue bands run in a 5:1:2 ratio. The blue is sky above the stripe and sea below it, the yellow stripe is the sun, and the stars are Curaçao and its small uninhabited neighbor Klein Curaçao. The five points on each star stand for the five continents Curaçao's people trace their roots to. The flag flies across the island year-round and has its own public holiday, Dia di Bandera, on July 2. History: Curaçao ran a public competition for an island flag in the early 1980s, while it was still one of the island territories of the Netherlands Antilles. Around 2,000 designs came in, a selection committee shortlisted ten, and on November 29, 1982 it picked the entry of Martin den Dulk, a local student still in his teens. The flag was raised for the first time on July 2, 1984, a date chosen because Curaçao's first Island Council had convened on July 2, 1951. When the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on October 10, 2010 and Curaçao became an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the island flag became a national flag without a single change to the design. ### The Flag of Cyprus URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cyprus Adopted: 1960-08-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus Last updated: 2026-05-16 The national flag of Cyprus shows a map of the whole island with two olive branches below it on a white background. The map is copper-orange for the large deposits of copper ore on the island, which may be where its name comes from. The olive branches stand for peace and for the hope of reconciliation between the Greek and Turkish communities. History: Cyprus adopted the flag on August 16, 1960, when it became independent of British rule. It came out of a national competition for a symbol that could represent all Cypriots regardless of ethnic background. White was chosen for peace, and the map and olive branches for the hoped-for harmony between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. Before 1960 Cyprus had no flag of its own, and officials used the flags of Greece or Turkey depending on which community they came from. ### The Flag of Czechia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/czechia Adopted: 1993 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_Republic Last updated: 2026-05-17 The flag of Czechia, also known as the Czech Republic, has two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red, with a blue triangle extending from the hoist side. The triangle is what distinguishes it from the white and red bicolor used by Poland. History: The flag of Czechia was first adopted in 1920, after the country was formed out of the collapse of Austria-Hungary. White, red, and blue are the traditional Pan-Slavic colors. The first version was identical to the flag of Poland, which shared both the colors and much of the historical background, so a blue triangle was added at the hoist to tell the two apart. The Nazi occupation banned the flag, and the communist regime banned it again in 1955, but it came back in 1990 after the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism. When Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, the Czech Republic kept it. ### The Flag of Denmark URL: https://www.flagdb.com/denmark Adopted: 1748 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark Last updated: 2026-05-17 The flag of Denmark, known as the Dannebrog, is a red field with a white Scandinavian cross that runs to the edges of the flag. The vertical arm of the cross sits closer to the hoist side. It is one of the oldest flag designs still in use anywhere in the world. History: The origins of the Dannebrog go back to the 13th century and are mostly legend. In the best known version, the flag fell from the heavens during the Battle of Lyndanisse on June 15, 1219, as a sign from God that he backed the Danish King Valdemar II the Victorious, and the Danes went on to beat the Estonians. Historical records first acknowledge the flag in the 14th century, and it has been recognized as the national flag of Denmark since the 17th. Every other Nordic country later borrowed its off-center cross. ### The Flag of Djibouti URL: https://www.flagdb.com/djibouti Adopted: 1977-06-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djibouti Last updated: 2026-05-18 The flag of Djibouti has two horizontal bands of light blue and light green, with a white triangle at the hoist bearing a red five-pointed star in the center. The light blue band represents the sky and the sea, the green band the earth, the white triangle peace, and the red star unity. History: The flag of Djibouti was officially adopted on June 27, 1977, when the country became independent from France. It came out of a national flag contest held to find a symbol for the new republic. The light blue and green stand for the Somali and Afar peoples, the two largest ethnic groups in Djibouti. The red star is a common symbol of unity and freedom on African flags, and here it also marks the struggle for independence. ### The Flag of Dominica URL: https://www.flagdb.com/dominica Adopted: 1978-11-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominica Last updated: 2026-05-18 The flag of Dominica has a green field for the vegetation of the island, with a cross that stretches to the edges and divides the flag into four quarters. The cross is made of three colors: yellow, black, and white, for the indigenous people, the fertile soil, and the pure water. In the center of the cross is a red disk bearing a Sisserou Parrot, an endemic species and the national bird, ringed by ten green stars for the island's ten parishes. History: The flag of Dominica was officially adopted on November 3, 1978, the same day the country gained independence from Great Britain. The flag was designed by Alwin Bully, a playwright, artist, and cultural activist from Dominica, as part of a national competition to design a flag for the newly independent nation. The original design has been modified a few times, including a 1988 change that gave the Sisserou Parrot a more naturalistic treatment and adjusted the colors of the cross. ### The Flag of Ecuador URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ecuador Adopted: 1830 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador Last updated: 2026-05-19 The flag of Ecuador consists of three horizontal stripes: yellow at the top, blue in the middle, and red at the bottom, with the national coat of arms placed in the center of the flag. The yellow stripe is twice the width of the blue and red stripes, which are equal. Ecuador shares the tricolor with Colombia and Venezuela, and the coat of arms is what tells them apart. History: Ecuador's flag was officially adopted on September 26, 1860, but its origins trace back to the early 19th century during the struggle for independence from Spanish rule. The design was inspired by the flag of the Gran Colombia, a short-lived republic that included what is now Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. The colors were chosen by General Francisco de Miranda, a precursor to Simon Bolivar and a key figure in Latin American independence. The yellow represents the country's gold, agriculture, and riches, blue symbolizes the sea and sky, and red stands for the blood shed by the heroes of independence. The inclusion of the coat of arms, added in 1900, distinguishes Ecuador's flag from those of Colombia and Venezuela, which share the same tricolor design but without a coat of arms. ### The Flag of Egypt URL: https://www.flagdb.com/egypt Adopted: 1984-10-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt Last updated: 2026-05-20 The flag of Egypt has three horizontal stripes, red on the top, white in the middle and black on the bottom, with the national emblem, the Eagle of Saladin, centered in the white stripe. The current design was adopted on October 4, 1984. Red stands for bravery and sacrifice, white for purity, and black for the period of occupation that ended with the 1952 revolution. History: Egypt's flag has changed with almost every political rupture the country has been through. The tricolor design dates to the 1952 revolution, which overthrew the monarchy and established a republic. The version adopted in 1953 had the same three horizontal stripes but a green star in the center. The current eagle replaced it in 1984, honoring Salah al-Din, the 12th-century sultan known in the West as Saladin, whose eagle emblem stood for strength and resistance. The colors have stayed the same since 1952. ### The Flag of El Salvador URL: https://www.flagdb.com/el-salvador Adopted: 1912-05-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Salvador Last updated: 2026-05-20 The flag of El Salvador consists of three horizontal stripes. The top and bottom stripes are cobalt blue, representing the sky and the Pacific Ocean, while the middle stripe is white, symbolizing peace. At the center of the flag is the national coat of arms, featuring a triangle symbolizing equality, five volcanoes representing the five members of the United Provinces of Central America, and the Phrygian cap symbolizing freedom. History: The flag of El Salvador has undergone several iterations since the country's independence from Spain in 1821. The current design was adopted on May 27, 1912. The flag's colors and elements are inspired by the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America, reflecting El Salvador's history as part of the federation. The coat of arms was added to mark the republic's sovereignty and independence. ### The Flag of England URL: https://www.flagdb.com/england Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England Last updated: 2026-04-16 The flag of England is a white field with a red cross at its center, known as the St. George's Cross after the patron saint of England. There is no fixed ratio, but it is commonly seen at 3:5 or 1:2. History: The flag comes out of the Crusades and the legend of Saint George, who was believed to have protected the Crusaders in battle. The red cross on a white field can be traced back to the late 12th century, during the reign of Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart. English knights and soldiers used it first, and it slowly came to stand for the nation itself. Throughout the medieval period, the St. George's Cross was used in various military contexts, but it wasn't until the 16th century that it started to be widely recognized as the national flag of England. Its use was further solidified under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, particularly during the Spanish Armada in 1588, when it was flown by the English fleet. In 1606, the flag was combined with the flag of Scotland upon the accession of James I to the English throne, creating the Union Jack. However, the St. George's Cross continued to be used as the flag of England for certain purposes, especially in contexts emphasizing England's national identity separately from the United Kingdom. Today, the flag is flown on Saint George's Day, April 23, and at other national and sporting events where England is represented separately from the rest of the United Kingdom. ### The Flag of Equatorial Guinea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/equatorial-guinea Adopted: 1979-08-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea Last updated: 2026-05-21 The flag of Equatorial Guinea consists of three horizontal stripes of green, white, and red, with a blue triangle based at the hoist. At the center of the white stripe is the national coat of arms, which features a silk cotton tree, a symbol of the country, along with the motto 'Unidad, Paz, Justicia' (Unity, Peace, Justice) inscribed on a banner. The green symbolizes the natural resources and jungles of the country, the white stands for peace, the red represents the struggle for independence, and the blue triangle signifies the sea, which connects the different parts of the country. History: The flag of Equatorial Guinea was officially adopted on August 21, 1979, following a coup that brought President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to power. The country had gained independence from Spain on October 12, 1968, and initially adopted a flag that also featured the green, white, and red colors, but without the blue triangle and with a different coat of arms. The post-independence flag was similar to the current one but underwent a change during the rule of Francisco Macías Nguema, who led the country from independence until his ousting in 1979. During his regime, the flag was completely redesigned to feature different symbols and colors. The return to a variation of the original flag in 1979 marked an effort to restore national unity and heritage after years of tumultuous rule. ### The Flag of Eritrea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/eritrea Adopted: 1995-12-05 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eritrea Last updated: 2026-05-21 The flag of Eritrea features a red isosceles triangle pointing towards the fly side of the flag, based on a green, blue, and red tricolor. The red triangle is bordered by two thinner stripes, green above and blue below. Centered in the red triangle is a gold wreath encircling a single gold olive branch. The green color symbolizes the agriculture and livestock of the country, blue stands for the ocean, and red represents the blood shed for Eritrea's independence. The wreath with the olive branch signifies peace. History: The flag of Eritrea was officially adopted on December 5, 1995, after the country gained independence from Ethiopia following a prolonged struggle that lasted for 30 years. The design of the current flag is heavily influenced by the flag of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which played a significant role in the country's fight for independence. The layout and colors were worked out during the independence movement. The wreath and olive branch in the final design stand for peace. ### The Flag of Estonia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/estonia Adopted: 1918-11-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia Last updated: 2026-05-22 The flag of Estonia consists of three horizontal stripes of equal size. From top to bottom, the colors are blue, black, and white. The blue represents Estonia's sky, sea, and lakes; the black symbolizes the dark past and suffering of the Estonian people; and the white stands for purity, hope, and freedom. History: The national flag of Estonia was officially adopted on November 21, 1918, shortly after the country declared independence from the Russian Empire. The design was originally conceived by the Estonian Students' Society in 1881, making it one of the oldest flags of its kind in Europe. Foreign occupiers banned it and restricted its use, and Estonians kept flying it anyway, privately and in exile. It was restored as the national symbol when Estonia regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. ### The Flag of Eswatini URL: https://www.flagdb.com/eswatini Adopted: 1968-10-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eswatini Last updated: 2026-05-23 The flag of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland) consists of horizontal stripes in blue, yellow, and red, with a large black and white Nguni shield covering two spears and a staff decorated with feather tassels, all centered on the flag. The blue stripes symbolize peace and stability, the yellow represents the resources of Eswatini, and the red stands for past struggles. The shield and spears are symbols of protection from the country's enemies. History: The flag of Eswatini was officially adopted on October 6, 1968, a month after the country's independence from British rule on September 6. The design was already in use before either date: it was first hoisted on April 25, 1967, and registered with the College of Arms in London that October. The design of the flag is based on a military banner given by King Sobhuza II to the Swazi Pioneer Corps in 1941. This corps served during World War II, and the flag was meant to inspire patriotism and valor. The original design has undergone slight modifications, including the adjustment of the shield's position and the proportions of the flag, but the essential elements and their meanings have not changed. ### The Flag of Ethiopia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ethiopia Adopted: 1778-10-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopia Last updated: 2026-05-23 The flag of Ethiopia has three horizontal bands of green, yellow, and red from top to bottom. At the center is a blue circle carrying a gold star surrounded by rays, known as the Emblem of Ethiopia. The three colors are the ones most often associated with Pan-Africanism, and they have been in Ethiopian use since the 19th century. History: The current flag was adopted on February 6, 1996, but its colors go back to the era of Emperor Menelik II in the late 19th century. The green, yellow, and red bands were first used in 1897, tied to the Solomonic dynasty, whose rulers claimed descent from the biblical King Solomon and Queen Sheba. The colors later acquired their own readings: green for the land and its fertility, yellow for peace and harmony, red for strength and for the blood shed defending the country. The central emblem was added in 1996 to stand for unity and diversity. Because Ethiopia held out against colonization, several other African nations adopted its colors after independence. ### The Flag of Fiji URL: https://www.flagdb.com/fiji Adopted: 1970-10-10 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji Last updated: 2026-05-24 The flag of Fiji has a light blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, a reference to British colonial rule, and a shield taken from Fiji's national arms on the fly side. The shield holds a yellow lion with a cacao pod, three panels showing sugar cane, a coconut palm, and a bunch of bananas, and a fourth panel with a dove of peace. History: Fiji adopted its current flag on October 10, 1970, the day it gained independence from Britain. The Union Jack marks Fiji's status as a former British colony, and the shield from the national arms carries the country's own imagery. Before 1970 Fiji used several flags under British colonial administration, most of them built around the Union Jack. Changes have been proposed, particularly after Fiji became a republic in 1987, but the 1970 design is still in use. ### The Flag of Finland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/finland Adopted: 1918-05-29 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland Last updated: 2026-05-25 The flag of Finland, known as the Siniristilippu (Blue Cross Flag), has a blue Nordic cross on a white background. Blue stands for the country's lakes and sky, white for snow and summer nights. The cross ties Finland to the other Nordic countries. History: The flag was adopted on May 29, 1918, shortly after Finland declared independence from Russia in December 1917. The design follows the Scandinavian cross used in various forms by all the Nordic countries. Several designs were proposed, including ones with a red cross to reflect Finland's past association with Sweden and Russia, but the blue cross was chosen for its simplicity and its fit with the Finnish landscape. ### The Flag of France URL: https://www.flagdb.com/france Adopted: 1853-05-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France Last updated: 2026-05-25 The national flag of France, known as the Tricolour or 'Tricolore', has three vertical stripes of equal width, running from the flagpole outward in the order blue, white, red. The design is closely associated with the values of the Republic: liberty, equality, and fraternity. History: The Tricolour comes out of the French Revolution. The first version combined the blue and red of the city of Paris with the royal white, standing for the union of the Parisian revolutionaries with the monarchy against their common enemies. It was adopted on February 15, 1794. The colors are often linked to the three estates of the Ancien Régime, the clergy (white), the nobility (red), and the bourgeoisie (blue), though no such reading was stated at the time of adoption. The flag was replaced or altered during later periods of monarchy and empire, then reinstated after the July Revolution of 1830, and it has been unchanged since. ### The Flag of French Guiana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/french-guiana Adopted: 1794-02-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Guiana Last updated: 2026-05-26 French Guiana is a region of France, so its official flag is the French Tricolore, three vertical bands of blue, white, and red. A local flag is widely used alongside it: two vertical bands of green and yellow with a red star in the upper hoist corner of the green band. Green is the region's forests, yellow its gold and other minerals, and the red star socialism and unity. History: As a French overseas department, French Guiana has no official flag of its own and formally uses the flag of France, adopted on February 15, 1794. The local flag has been in unofficial use since the 1970s. It was designed by the Union of Guianese Workers, a political group campaigning for autonomy and social progress. It has no official status, but it is widely used within French Guiana, particularly at cultural and sporting events. ### The Flag of French Polynesia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/french-polynesia Adopted: 1985-12-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia Last updated: 2026-05-26 The flag of French Polynesia has two horizontal red bands at the top and bottom with a wider white band between them. Centered in the white band is the territory's emblem: a circular disk with a stylized Tahitian outrigger canoe under a golden sun, above ocean waves. The red and white come from traditional Polynesian use, and the emblem points to the territory's maritime history. History: The flag was adopted on November 23, 1984, after a period of deliberation about the territory's identity and its relationship with France. Before that, French Polynesia had no flag of its own and was represented internationally by the flag of France. The 1984 adoption came alongside a widening of autonomy within the French Republic. The design elements were chosen to draw on indigenous Polynesian culture while keeping the colors associated with France. ### The Flag of Gabon URL: https://www.flagdb.com/gabon Adopted: 1960-08-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabon Last updated: 2026-05-27 The flag of Gabon has three horizontal bands of equal width: green, yellow, and blue from top to bottom. Green is the country's forests, yellow the equator that runs through Gabon, and blue the Atlantic Ocean. The design maps the country's geography almost directly. History: Gabon adopted its flag on August 9, 1960, shortly before independence from France on August 17, 1960. The colors are the traditional Pan-African ones, though the arrangement and the meanings attached to them are Gabon's own. The flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Georgia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/georgia Adopted: 2004-01-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country) Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Georgia, also known as the Five Cross Flag, has a white field with a large red cross running to the edges, and four smaller red Bolnur-Katskhuri crosses in the quadrants. The arrangement is a Jerusalem cross, and the design is read as a statement of Orthodox Christian faith. The ratio is 2:3. History: Parliament adopted the Five Cross Flag on January 14, 2004, and President Mikheil Saakashvili confirmed it by decree eleven days later. It replaced the cherry red flag of the 1918-1921 Democratic Republic of Georgia, which had been restored in November 1990 and used through the first years of independence. Campaigners presented the five-cross design as the banner of the medieval Georgian kingdom, a claim resting mainly on a portolan atlas of 1367 and on later tradition rather than on continuous documented use. Parliament had already passed a bill to adopt it in 1999, but President Eduard Shevardnadze declined to endorse it. Saakashvili's United National Movement then took the flag as its party banner, and it became the emblem of the 2003 Rose Revolution that removed Shevardnadze from office. ### The Flag of Germany URL: https://www.flagdb.com/germany Adopted: 1917 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany Last updated: 2026-05-29 The flag of Germany has three horizontal bands of equal width: black at the top, red in the middle, and gold at the bottom. The tricolor is associated with German unity and freedom. History: The colors go back to the early 19th century and the Napoleonic Wars. Black, red, and gold were taken from the uniforms of the German soldiers who fought against Napoleonic rule, and were first used in 1813 during the War of Liberation. The flag in its present form was adopted in 1919, after the First World War, by the Weimar Republic. It was banned under the Nazi regime from 1933, restored in 1949 by both East and West Germany, and kept as the flag of the reunified country after 1990. ### The Flag of Ghana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ghana Adopted: 1957 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana Last updated: 2026-05-29 The flag of Ghana has three horizontal stripes, red, yellow, and green from top to bottom, with a black five-pointed star in the middle of the yellow stripe. Red is for the blood shed for independence, yellow for the country's mineral wealth, and green for its forests and farmland. The black star stands for African freedom. History: Ghana adopted its flag on March 6, 1957, the day it became the first African country south of the Sahara to win independence from colonial rule. Theodosia Okoh designed it. She drew on the flag of the Ethiopian Empire, which had resisted colonial rule and become a symbol of African independence. The black star came from the Black Star Line, the shipping company Marcus Garvey incorporated to carry members of the African diaspora back to the continent. The design has been altered once. In 1964 the middle gold stripe was replaced with white, the colors of Nkrumah's Convention People's Party, and the original red, gold, and green was hoisted again on February 28, 1966, days after the military coup that removed him. ### The Flag of Gibraltar URL: https://www.flagdb.com/gibraltar Adopted: 1982-11-08 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar Last updated: 2026-05-30 The flag of Gibraltar has a white field with a horizontal red stripe across its lower third. On it sits a three-towered red castle with a gold key hanging from its gate. The key stands for Gibraltar's position as the gateway to the Mediterranean Sea. History: The flag of Gibraltar is based on the coat of arms granted by royal warrant of Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1502, when the territory was Castilian. The gold key gives Gibraltar its old title, the 'Key to the Mediterranean', earned by its position at the entrance to the sea. Britain took Gibraltar in 1704 and kept the Castilian arms rather than replacing them, so the design flown today is essentially the one Isabella granted. ### The Flag of Greece URL: https://www.flagdb.com/greece Adopted: 1822-03-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greece Last updated: 2026-05-30 The national flag of Greece, known as the 'Blue and White', has nine horizontal stripes alternating blue and white, with a blue canton in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross. Its aspect ratio is 2:3. The cross stands for Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and the nine stripes are usually read as the nine syllables of the revolutionary motto 'Freedom or Death'. History: The origins of the Greek flag's design are unclear, and several readings of its symbolism compete. The current form was adopted on December 22, 1978, but blue and white go back to the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire in 1821. Through the 19th and 20th centuries the flag changed several times, mostly in the shade of blue and the arrangement of the stripes. The cross stands for Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the predominant religion of Greece. The nine stripes are said to represent the syllables of 'Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος' ('Freedom or Death'), the motto of the War of Independence, though others read them as the nine muses of Greek mythology. The blue and white are commonly linked to the Greek sea and sky. ### The Flag of Greenland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/greenland Adopted: 1985-06-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland Last updated: 2026-05-31 The flag of Greenland, known locally as Erfalasorput, meaning 'our flag', has two equal horizontal bands, white over red, with a large circle offset toward the hoist. The circle inverts the field: its upper half is red, its lower half white. The design is usually read as the sun sitting on the horizon over ice and ocean. Adopted on June 21, 1985, it breaks with the Nordic cross used across the rest of the region. History: Greenland's flag came out of a public competition that drew 555 proposals. The winning design was by Thue Christiansen, a Greenlandic artist, teacher, and politician. Before 1985 Greenland flew the Danish flag, as an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Erfalasorput arrived six years after Home Rule and well before the expanded autonomy of 2009, and it was the first widely visible sign of a separate Greenlandic identity. The flag is celebrated every June 21, Greenland's National Day, which falls on the summer solstice. ### The Flag of Grenada URL: https://www.flagdb.com/grenada Adopted: 1974-02-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenada Last updated: 2026-05-31 The flag of Grenada has a red border carrying six gold stars, three above and three below. Inside the border the field is divided diagonally into four triangles, yellow at the top and bottom and green at the hoist and fly, with a seventh gold star at the center. A nutmeg pod sits on the hoist-side green triangle, one of Grenada's most important exports. Green stands for agriculture, yellow for sunshine, and red for the courage of the people. The six border stars stand for the six parishes. History: Grenada adopted the flag on February 7, 1974, the day it became independent from the United Kingdom. Anthony C. George of Soubise in Saint Andrew Parish designed it, having won a national competition. The nutmeg on the hoist-side triangle points to the crop that made Grenada the 'Isle of Spice': at its peak the island supplied roughly a third of the world's nutmeg, and mace comes from the same fruit. The flag replaced the British Blue Ensign with a colonial badge, and it has not been altered since. ### The Flag of Guadeloupe URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guadeloupe Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadeloupe Last updated: 2026-06-01 Guadeloupe has no official flag of its own. The French tricolor of blue, white, and red is what flies in official settings. The flag most commonly associated with the island is unofficial: a black field carrying a gold radiating sun above a bundle of green sugar cane, with a blue band across the top bearing three gold fleurs-de-lis. A version with a red field instead of black is also sold. Its elements refer to the sugar economy, the tropical climate, and the island's former place in the French royal domain. History: The flag most people recognize as Guadeloupe's, with its sun, sugar cane, and fleurs-de-lis, has never been officially adopted. It was assembled from the old coats of arms of Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre, and it is sold to tourists and flown at cultural and sporting events. Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France, so French national symbols serve in official capacities. The fleurs-de-lis make the flag contentious: they stand for the Ancien Régime monarchy that ran the island as a slave colony, and the same emblem was branded onto runaway slaves. The independence movement flies something else entirely, a red, yellow and green flag with a star. ### The Flag of Guam URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guam Adopted: 1948-02-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guam Last updated: 2026-06-03 The flag of Guam has a deep blue field for the ocean and sky around the island. In the center is an almond-shaped emblem, the shape of the slingshot stones used by the indigenous Chamorro people. Inside it is Agaña Bay with a coconut tree and a flying proa, the local outrigger canoe. The red border stands for the blood shed in World War II. History: Guam adopted its flag on February 9, 1948, though Helen L. Paul, the wife of a U.S. Navy officer stationed on the island, had drawn the design in 1917. Guam had been an American territory since 1898, following the Spanish-American War, and until then had no flag of its own. The design has been modified a few times since: the central emblem changed from a territorial seal to a coat of arms in the 1960s, and the emblem's size and position were adjusted in 1989. The imagery draws on Chamorro culture and on the island's colonial history at the same time. ### The Flag of Guatemala URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guatemala Adopted: 1871-08-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala Last updated: 2026-06-02 The flag of Guatemala has three vertical stripes, sky blue at the sides and white in the middle. The blue stands for peace and justice, the white for purity. At the center is Guatemala's coat of arms: the resplendent quetzal, the national bird and a symbol of liberty; a parchment scroll carrying the date of Central America's independence from Spain; crossed rifles for the country's readiness to defend itself; and a laurel crown for victory. History: Guatemala adopted the flag on August 17, 1871, after the victory of the liberal forces led by Miguel García Granados and Justo Rufino Barrios. The first flag had appeared in 1825, when Guatemala was a state of the Federal Republic of Central America, and a flag of Guatemala's own followed in 1843 under the conservative government. The 1871 redesign stripped out the symbolism of that era and turned the bands vertical, and the coat of arms decreed on November 18 of the same year introduced the quetzal. The current proportions and design were codified in 1968. The blue and white come from the Federal Republic of Central America, which Guatemala belonged to from 1823 to 1841; turning the bands from horizontal to vertical is what sets Guatemala apart from El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua. ### The Flag of Guernsey URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guernsey Adopted: 1985-04-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailiwick_of_Guernsey Last updated: 2026-06-01 The flag of Guernsey is a white field with a red St George's Cross reaching the edges, and a gold Norman cross laid over the center of it. The gold cross is what separates Guernsey's flag from England's, and it points to the island's Norman rather than English roots. History: Guernsey adopted its flag on April 30, 1985. Until then the island flew the plain St George's Cross, the same design as England, which caused regular confusion at sporting and official events. The gold Norman cross was proposed to mark the 40th anniversary of the island's liberation from German occupation in the Second World War, and it stands for Guernsey's Norman heritage. The island is a British Crown Dependency whose loyalty to the Crown runs through the Duchy of Normandy rather than through England, and the flag says so. ### The Flag of Guinea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guinea Adopted: 1958-11-10 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea Last updated: 2026-06-03 The flag of Guinea is a vertical tricolor of red, yellow, and green in three equal bands, red at the hoist. The colors are the Pan-African palette. Red is for the sacrifice made for independence, yellow for the sun and the country's mineral wealth, and green for its vegetation and farmland. History: Guinea adopted its flag on November 10, 1958, weeks after gaining independence from France on October 2, 1958. The colors follow those used by the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain, a party central to decolonization across French West Africa, and they place Guinea in the Pan-African tradition that traces back to the Ethiopian flag. The vertical layout mirrors the French tricolor, the flag of the power Guinea had just voted to leave. No government since, elected or otherwise, has altered the design. ### The Flag of Guinea-Bissau URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guinea-bissau Adopted: 1973 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea-Bissau Last updated: 2026-06-02 The flag of Guinea-Bissau has two horizontal bands, yellow over green, with a vertical red stripe at the hoist bearing a black star. The colors follow the Pan-African palette used across the continent: red for the independence struggle, yellow for the sun and the country's wealth, green for its vegetation, and the black star for African freedom. History: Guinea-Bissau adopted its flag on September 24, 1973, the day it unilaterally declared independence from Portugal, which did not recognize the new state until September 1974. The design came from the banner of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the movement that fought the liberation war. The colors are Pan-African: yellow for the sun and the wealth of the country, green for its vegetation, red for the struggle for independence, and the black star for African freedom. The party flag became the state flag with no design competition and no debate, and it has not been altered since. ### The Flag of Guyana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/guyana Adopted: 1966-05-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana Last updated: 2026-06-04 The flag of Guyana, known as the Golden Arrowhead, has two triangles extending from the hoist side over a green field. The larger triangle is gold and is bordered in white for the country's rivers. The smaller one inside it is red and bordered in black. Green stands for agriculture and forests, gold for mineral wealth, red for zeal, and black for endurance. History: Guyana adopted the flag on May 26, 1966, the day it gained independence from British colonial rule. The design came from Whitney Smith, the American vexillologist who coined the word for the study of flags, invited by the Guyanese government to design one for the new nation. Guyana made a single change to his proposal, adding thin black and white borders (fimbriation) around the two triangles to sharpen the contrast at a distance. The flag replaced the British Blue Ensign that had flown over British Guiana for more than a century, and it survived the transition to a republic in 1970 unchanged. ### The Flag of Haiti URL: https://www.flagdb.com/haiti Adopted: 1986-02-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiti Last updated: 2026-06-04 The flag of Haiti is a bicolour of two horizontal bands, blue over red, with the coat of arms at the center on a white panel. The arms show a palm tree topped by the Cap of Liberty and flanked by cannons, for freedom and the readiness to defend it. The colors come from the French tricolor with the white removed. History: The flag of Haiti was restored to its current form on February 25, 1986, though its origins go back to the Haitian Revolution against French colonial rule. Tradition holds that the revolutionary flag was made on May 18, 1803, when Jean-Jacques Dessalines took a French tricolor and removed the white band, cutting the white population out of the flag. What remained, blue and red, stood for the union of the African and mixed-race populations of the island. Haiti has changed its flag more often than any country in the Western Hemisphere, usually during political upheaval, and the coat of arms has been revised many times. François Duvalier replaced the bicolour with a black and red design in 1964, and the blue and red returned in 1986 after the fall of his son. ### The Flag of Honduras URL: https://www.flagdb.com/honduras Adopted: 1866-02-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduras Last updated: 2026-06-05 The flag of Honduras consists of three horizontal stripes: the top and bottom stripes are blue, and the middle stripe is white. In the center of the white stripe, there are five blue stars arranged in an X pattern. The blue stripes represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that flank Honduras, while the white stripe symbolizes peace. The five stars stand for the five nations of the former Federal Republic of Central America: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. History: Honduras adopted its flag in 1866, decades after the Federal Republic of Central America dissolved in 1840. The blue and white stripes come from the federation's own flag, which several former member states kept after it broke up. The five stars were added to stand for the five nations of the old federation, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, and for the hope that they would one day reunite. The design has been essentially unchanged since. ### The Flag of Hong Kong URL: https://www.flagdb.com/hong-kong Adopted: 1990-04-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong Last updated: 2026-06-05 The flag of Hong Kong has a white, five-petal Bauhinia blakeana flower at the center of a red field. Each petal carries a red star, and the five stars sit in a circle. The design is meant to convey harmony and unity, and the red field ties Hong Kong to China. History: Hong Kong's flag was adopted on July 1, 1997, the day the United Kingdom returned sovereignty of Hong Kong to China and British rule ended. The Handover, as the event is known, began the 'one country, two systems' arrangement. The design came out of a public competition that ran from May 1987 to March 1988 and drew 7,147 submissions, of which 4,489 were flag designs. None of the shortlisted entries was accepted in Beijing, and the design that emerged instead came from architect Tao Ho, who had sat on the judging panel. It uses the Bauhinia blakeana, a flower found only in Hong Kong. The National People's Congress approved the design on April 4, 1990, and the flag was first raised at the Handover. It was meant to mark both the return to China and Hong Kong's own cultural identity within it. ### The Flag of Hungary URL: https://www.flagdb.com/hungary Adopted: 1957-02-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungary Last updated: 2026-06-06 The flag of Hungary is a horizontal tricolor of three equal bands: red at the top, then white, then green. It belongs to the European tricolor tradition and carries no emblem in the center. History: The colors come from the national coat of arms, which dates to the Middle Ages. Red is usually read as strength and bravery, white as faithfulness, and green as hope and the joy of life. The tricolor format was adopted during the 1848 revolution, taking the French flag as a model of liberty. The flag was altered during later periods of foreign domination and political upheaval, but the plain red, white, and green tricolor was restored at the end of the communist era in 1989 and has stayed unchanged since. ### The Flag of Iceland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/iceland Adopted: 1944 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland Last updated: 2026-06-06 The flag of Iceland is a blue field with a white cross running to the edges and a narrower red cross laid over it, both offset toward the hoist. The colors come from the landscape: blue for the Atlantic, white for snow and glaciers, and red for the island's volcanic fire. History: Iceland's flag, known as 'Hin íslenska fáninn', was officially adopted on June 19, 1915, though the design had been in unofficial use since 1913. It follows the Nordic cross used by Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, with colors drawn from Iceland's own landscape rather than from dynastic tradition. At first the flag was used only on land. In 1915, after Iceland gained home rule from Denmark, it became the national flag and ensign for all purposes. That was a step toward independence, which came in full in 1944, and the flag has been a marker of Icelandic identity ever since. ### The Flag of India URL: https://www.flagdb.com/india Adopted: 1947-07-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India Last updated: 2026-06-07 The flag of India, also known as the Tiranga, is a horizontal tricolour of three equal bands: deep saffron at the top, white in the middle, and dark green at the bottom. At the centre of the white band is a navy blue wheel with 24 spokes, the Ashoka Chakra. Saffron is usually read as courage and sacrifice, white as peace and truth, green as faith and chivalry, and the wheel as the law of dharma. History: The current flag of India was adopted on July 22, 1947, weeks before India gained independence from British rule on August 15, 1947. The design was based on the Swaraj flag of the Indian National Congress, drawn up by Pingali Venkayya. Several flags had been proposed and used by the independence movement over the previous decades. The final design was meant to represent all communities in India, and the Ashoka Chakra, a 24-spoke wheel from the Lion Capital of Ashoka, replaced the spinning wheel of the pre-independence version as a symbol of law and dharma. The choice set the new republic's secular and democratic intent against the more explicitly communal designs that came before it. ### The Flag of Indonesia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/indonesia Adopted: 1945-08-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia Last updated: 2026-06-07 The flag of Indonesia, known as 'Sang Saka Merah-Putih' (The Sacred Red and White), is two equal horizontal bands, red over white. Red stands for courage and white for purity. It is one of the plainest national flags in use, with no emblem of any kind. History: The red and white pairing goes back to the Majapahit Empire of the 13th century, where similar colors were used. The flag was adopted on August 17, 1945, the day independence from Dutch colonial rule was declared. Red is read as human blood and white as the human spirit. Drawing on Majapahit colors tied the new republic to a much older political tradition. Through the war against the Dutch that followed and the decades of nation-building after it, the Red and White has stayed unchanged. ### The Flag of Iran URL: https://www.flagdb.com/iran Adopted: 1980-07-29 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran Last updated: 2026-06-08 The flag of Iran has three horizontal bands of green, white, and red, with the national emblem at the centre of the white band and the takbir written 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and the top edge of the red band, in white Kufic script. Green stands for growth, happiness, unity, nature, vitality, and the Persian language. White stands for freedom, peace, and cleanliness. Red stands for martyrdom, courage, love, and warmth. The emblem is said to represent the five principles of Islam. History: The current flag of Iran was adopted on July 29, 1980, after the revolution of 1979 that established the Islamic Republic. Before then Iran used the same tricolor with a lion and sun emblem at the centre, a symbol of the monarchy that had ruled for centuries. The revolutionaries removed the lion and sun and replaced it with the present emblem, which is said to stand for the five pillars of Islam and is shaped like a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom in Iran. The takbir, which translates as 'God is great', was added at the same time to mark the Islamic character of the new state. ### The Flag of Iraq URL: https://www.flagdb.com/iraq Adopted: 2008-01-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq Last updated: 2026-06-08 The flag of Iraq has three horizontal stripes of equal width, red, white, and black from top to bottom. Centred in the white stripe is the Takbir ("Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is the greatest" in Arabic) written in Kufic script. The current design was adopted on January 22, 2008. The flag has changed several times since 1921, and each change followed a change of government. History: Iraq's flag has been redrawn repeatedly, and each version tracks a shift in who held power. The first was introduced in 1921 under the British mandate: a black-white-green horizontal tricolor with a red trapezoid at the hoist for the Hashemite dynasty. In 1959, after the Republic of Iraq was established, a new flag used three vertical stripes of black, white, and green with a red eight-pointed star at the centre. After the Ba'ath Party took power in 1963, the flag became the familiar black-white-green horizontal stripes with three green stars on the white stripe, standing for unity, freedom, and socialism. Saddam Hussein added the Takbir in green during the Gulf War in 1991, reportedly to draw Muslim support. After the fall of his regime in 2003 the flag went through temporary modifications, and the current design followed in 2008. It kept the Takbir, now in a standardized Kufic script, and dropped the stars. ### The Flag of Ireland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ireland Adopted: 1922 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland Last updated: 2026-06-09 The flag of Ireland, the Irish tricolour, has three equal vertical bands of green, white, and orange. Green stands for the Gaelic tradition of Ireland, orange for the followers of William of Orange, and the white between them for peace between the two. History: Thomas Francis Meagher introduced the flag in 1848, having taken the French tricolor as his model. It stayed a minor symbol until the Easter Rising of 1916, when rebels raised it above the General Post Office in Dublin. It was adopted as the national flag of the Irish Free State in 1922, after independence from the United Kingdom, and has since become the emblem of Irish nationalism and Irish culture worldwide. ### The Flag of Israel URL: https://www.flagdb.com/israel Adopted: 1948-10-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel Last updated: 2026-03-03 The flag of Israel is a white field with two horizontal blue stripes and a blue hexagram, the Star of David, between them. The design comes from the flag of the Zionist movement, and the blue and white are said to be drawn from the tallit, the traditional Jewish prayer shawl. History: The flag of Israel was adopted on October 28, 1948, months after the state was established. Its origins go back to the First Zionist Congress of 1897, where a similar design was proposed for the Zionist movement. Built around the prayer shawl and the Star of David, it was used by Zionist organizations for half a century before it became a national flag. The adoption drew objections, particularly from religious groups within Israel who took a different view of which symbols should represent the state. It has since become one of the most widely recognized national flags in the world. ### The Flag of Italy URL: https://www.flagdb.com/italy Adopted: 1946-06-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy Last updated: 2026-06-10 The flag of Italy, known as 'il Tricolore', has three equal vertical bands of green, white, and red, running from the hoist to the fly. The usual reading is green for the plains and hills, white for the snow of the Alps, and red for the blood shed in the wars of Italian independence and unification, though none of it is fixed in law. History: Italy's flag dates to the late 18th century and follows the French flag brought to the peninsula by Napoleon in 1797. The first state to adopt a green, white, and red tricolor was the Cispadane Republic in 1797, a sister republic of revolutionary France. Over the following decades the colors became associated with the states and movements pushing for Italian unification. The modern flag was adopted on 1 January 1948, after the Italian Republic was established in 1946, but the tricolor had been in use by the Kingdom of Italy since unification in 1861. The main change was the removal of the Savoy coat of arms once the monarchy was abolished. ### The Flag of Ivory Coast URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ivory-coast Adopted: 1959-12-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_Coast Last updated: 2026-06-10 The flag of Ivory Coast has three equal vertical bands of orange, white, and green, starting at the hoist. The vertical format follows the French Tricolore, a legacy of the colonial period, but the colours are the country's own: orange for the land, white for peace, and green for hope and the forests of the south. History: The flag of Ivory Coast was adopted on December 3, 1959, months before independence from France on August 7, 1960. The design was meant to set the new nation apart from its colonial past while stating its own values. The colours are read in several ways, but most readings tie them to the country's geography and to its hopes for peace and prosperity. Unlike many African flags, this one has never been changed, through coups, civil war, and democratic transitions alike. ### The Flag of Jamaica URL: https://www.flagdb.com/jamaica Adopted: 1962-08-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica Last updated: 2026-06-11 The flag of Jamaica has a gold diagonal cross that divides the field into four sections: green at the top and bottom, black at the hoist and fly. Almost no other national flag is built this way. Most use vertical or horizontal stripes. History: Jamaica adopted the flag on August 6, 1962, the day it gained independence from the British Empire. Black stands for the strength and creativity of the people, gold for the natural wealth and the beauty of sunlight, and green for hope and agricultural resources. The first design used horizontal stripes, but it was changed to the current diagonal cross to avoid resembling other flags. The flag is sometimes called 'The Cross'. ### The Flag of Japan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/japan Adopted: 1870-02-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan Last updated: 2026-06-11 The national flag of Japan is a white rectangular field with a red disc at the center, representing the sun. It is called the Nisshōki (日章旗, 'flag of the sun') in official settings and, far more commonly, the Hinomaru (日の丸, 'circle of the sun'). The design points to Japan's epithet as the 'Land of the Rising Sun'. History: The Hinomaru is believed to date to Japan's early feudal period, and the sun disc had been associated with the country for centuries before that. Use of the flag spread during the Meiji Restoration, which began in 1868 and brought rapid modernization and westernization. It was not designated the national flag in law until 1999, when the Act on National Flag and Anthem formalized symbols that had long been in use. The flag has been a point of both pride and controversy, particularly during and after World War II. ### The Flag of Jersey URL: https://www.flagdb.com/jersey Adopted: 1981-04-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey Last updated: 2026-06-12 The flag of Jersey has a red saltire (diagonal cross) on a white field, with the island's badge in the upper quadrant nearest the flagpole: a red shield bearing three gold lions, topped by a yellow Plantagenet crown. The elements together mark the island's allegiance and its heritage. History: The States of Jersey adopted the current flag on June 12, 1979. Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed it by royal warrant on December 10, 1980, and it was first officially hoisted on April 7, 1981. Jersey had flown a plain red saltire informally for centuries, but as a dependency of the British Crown it had no flag of its own in law, and the Union Jack or the Lieutenant Governor's flag served for official purposes. The red saltire is an homage to the St. Patrick's Cross and to the island's historical ties with the Duchy of Normandy, while the badge added in 1979, a red shield with three gold lions under a yellow Plantagenet crown, stands for Jersey's loyalty to the English Crown. The flag gave the island a way to express its own identity without loosening its connection to the United Kingdom. ### The Flag of Jordan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/jordan Adopted: 1928-04-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan Last updated: 2026-06-13 The flag of Jordan has three equal horizontal bands of black, white, and green from top to bottom. A red triangle at the hoist extends to the middle of the flag and carries a white seven-pointed star. The design comes from the flag of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I, and stands for Arab unity and freedom. History: Jordan adopted its flag on April 16, 1928, though its origins go back to the Arab Revolt of 1916. It is based on the revolt's flag, which drew on the Pan-Arab colors developed by the Arab nationalist movement. The black, white, and green bands stand for the Abbasid, Umayyad, and Fatimid Caliphates, three of the major Islamic dynasties that ruled the Arab world. The red triangle stands for the Hashemite dynasty, which led the revolt and still rules Jordan. The seven-pointed star stands for faith and for the seven verses of the first surah of the Quran. ### The Flag of Kazakhstan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kazakhstan Adopted: 1992-06-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan Last updated: 2026-06-12 The flag of Kazakhstan has a sky blue field representing the Turkic peoples who make up the nation. At the center is a golden sun with 32 rays above a golden steppe eagle. A vertical strip near the flagpole carries a national ornamental pattern called 'koshkar-muiz', the horns of the ram, also in gold. History: Kazakhstan adopted its flag on June 4, 1992, following the country's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union on December 16, 1991. The design is by Shaken Niyazbekov. The sky blue field stands for the country's Turkic heritage, the sun for life and energy, and the eagle for freedom and high aspiration, while the ornamental pattern comes from Kazakh artistic tradition. The flag was one of the first steps in building a national identity for the post-Soviet era. ### The Flag of Kenya URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kenya Adopted: 1963-12-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya Last updated: 2026-06-13 The flag of Kenya, known as the 'Harambee Flag', has horizontal stripes of black, red, and green separated by narrow white borders, with a Maasai shield and two crossed spears at the center. Black is for the people of Kenya, red for the blood shed in the fight for independence, green for the country's landscape and natural wealth, and the white borders for peace and honesty. The shield and spears stand for the defense of everything else on the flag. History: Kenya adopted its flag on December 12, 1963, the day it gained independence from Britain. It is based on the flag of the Kenya African National Union (KANU), the political party that led the independence struggle. The KANU flag used the same colors but had no shield or spears; those were added to represent the defense of freedom. The design looks back at the fight for independence and forward to what the new country hoped to become. ### The Flag of Kiribati URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kiribati Adopted: 1979-07-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati Last updated: 2026-06-14 The flag of Kiribati is red over blue, with the blue half slightly larger and crossed by three white wavy stripes. The upper half has a rising gold sun with 17 rays on the left and a gold frigatebird flying above it. The design maps the country's geography: the ocean, the islands, and the sun and bird that matter most in Kiribati tradition. History: Kiribati adopted its flag on July 12, 1979, when the country became independent from the United Kingdom. The design was chosen through a local competition, since the new nation wanted a symbol clearly its own rather than a colonial one. The sun, the frigatebird (which has a large place in local folklore), and the ocean all come out of I-Kiribati culture and environment. The 17 rays of the sun stand for the 16 Gilbert Islands and Banaba (Ocean Island), which together make up Kiribati. The flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Kosovo URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kosovo Adopted: 2008-02-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo Last updated: 2026-06-14 The flag of Kosovo has a blue field with a gold map of Kosovo set slightly toward the hoist. Six white stars sit in an arc above the map, one for each of the country's major ethnic groups. The blue and gold echo the European Union flag, a signal of Kosovo's ambition to join it. History: Kosovo adopted its flag on February 17, 2008, the same day it declared independence from Serbia. The design came out of a competition run by the United Nations-administered provisional government, which wanted a symbol that worked for all citizens regardless of ethnic background. Before that, Kosovo had no flag of its own for either its government or its status as an autonomous province. The design, and the map in particular, remains controversial in Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo's independence. ### The Flag of Kuwait URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kuwait Adopted: 1961 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuwait Last updated: 2026-06-15 The flag of Kuwait is a horizontal triband of green, white, and red with a black trapezoid extending from the hoist. Green is for the fertile lands, white for the deeds of the country, red for the enemies' blood, and black for the battles Kuwait has faced. The layout follows the Arab Revolt flag patterns. History: Kuwait adopted its current flag on September 7, 1961, months after independence from Britain on June 19, 1961. Before that it used a red and white flag with various symbols, including a crescent and star, much like other states in the Persian Gulf. Independence created the need for a flag that marked Kuwait's sovereignty, put distance between the new state and its colonial past, and aligned it with Arab nationalism. The colors and pattern come from the Pan-Arab colors popularized during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule. ### The Flag of Kyrgyzstan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kyrgyzstan Adopted: 1992-03-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan Last updated: 2026-06-15 The flag of Kyrgyzstan is a red field with a yellow sun at the center, its 40 rays evenly spaced. Inside the sun is a tündük, the cross-shaped crown of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt. Red stands for bravery and valor, the sun for peace and wealth, and the tündük for the origin and home of the Kyrgyz people. History: Kyrgyzstan adopted its flag on March 3, 1992, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, of which it had been a constituent republic. The new design replaced the flag of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic. The 40 rays of the sun stand for the 40 Kyrgyz tribes united by Manas, a legendary hero in Kyrgyz history. The tündük comes out of much older Kyrgyz tradition, where it stands for the family home and for the structure of the universe. ### The Flag of Laos URL: https://www.flagdb.com/laos Adopted: 1945-10-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laos Last updated: 2026-06-16 The national flag of Laos has red stripes at the top and bottom, a blue stripe in the middle at double the height of the red ones, and a white circle centered on the blue. The red stripes stand for the blood shed for freedom and independence, the blue for wealth and prosperity, and the white circle for both the unity of the people under the communist government and the full moon over the Mekong River. History: Laos adopted its flag on December 2, 1975, when the country became a socialist republic. It replaced the flag of the Kingdom of Laos and marked the end of the monarchy. The design comes from the flag of the Pathet Lao, the communist movement that established the Lao People's Democratic Republic, and its adoption signaled the country's turn toward socialism. ### The Flag of Latvia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/latvia Adopted: 1923-01-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia Last updated: 2026-06-16 The flag of Latvia is a horizontal bicolor of deep red (carmine) bands at the top and bottom, separated by a narrow white band in the middle. The red is specifically defined as dark carmine. The bands run 2:1:2 (red, white, red), and the flag's overall proportion is 1:2 (height to length). History: The origins of the Latvian flag go back to a 13th-century legend about a wounded Latvian tribal chief who was wrapped in a white sheet. The parts of the sheet his blood did not soak stayed white, which is said to have inspired the design. The first documented uses of the flag date to the late 19th century, specifically 1870. It was officially adopted on November 18, 1918, after the declaration of independence from Russia. The flag was banned during the Soviet and Nazi German occupations between 1940 and 1991, except during the period of Latvian independence from 1941 to 1944. It was re-adopted on February 27, 1990, before Latvia regained full independence on August 21, 1991. ### The Flag of Lebanon URL: https://www.flagdb.com/lebanon Adopted: 1943-12-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanon Last updated: 2026-06-17 The flag of Lebanon has three horizontal bands: red, white at double width, and red again, with a green cedar tree centered in the white band. Red stands for the blood shed in the fight for freedom, white for peace, purity, and the snow on the mountains, and the green cedar for immortality and steadiness. History: Lebanon adopted the flag on December 7, 1943, days before it gained independence from France. The designers wanted a symbol every Lebanese community could accept, so they chose the cedar, an ancient emblem of the country that appears in many biblical references and carries associations with holiness, eternity, and peace. It replaced the French tricolor. ### The Flag of Lesotho URL: https://www.flagdb.com/lesotho Adopted: 2006-10-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesotho Last updated: 2026-06-17 The flag of Lesotho is a horizontal tri-band of blue, white, and green, with a black Basotho hat (the mokorotlo) in the center of the white band. Blue stands for rain, white for peace, and green for prosperity. History: Lesotho has changed its flag twice since independence from Britain in 1966. The original independence flag was replaced in 1987, and the current design was adopted on October 4, 2006, the 40th anniversary of independence. Each change followed a political shift. The 2006 flag dropped the weapons carried by the earlier versions, which had tied the design to the military and to party politics. ### The Flag of Liberia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/liberia Adopted: 1847-08-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberia Last updated: 2026-06-18 The flag of Liberia closely resembles the flag of the United States, a reference to the country's origins. It has eleven horizontal stripes alternating red and white, starting and ending with red, and a white square in the upper left bearing a single blue star. The eleven stripes stand for the signatories of the Liberian Declaration of Independence, and the lone star for the country's independence. History: Liberia's flag was adopted on July 26, 1847, the same day the country declared independence from the American Colonization Society, the organization that resettled free African Americans in West Africa. The design deliberately mirrors the United States flag, because many of Liberia's early settlers had been enslaved or born free in the United States. The flag has not changed since. Its differences from the American original, above all the eleven stripes and the single star, mark the separation as clearly as the resemblance marks the connection. ### The Flag of Libya URL: https://www.flagdb.com/libya Adopted: 1951-12-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libya Last updated: 2026-06-18 The flag of Libya is a horizontal tricolor of red, black, and green from top to bottom, with a white crescent and star centered on the black band. The bands are not equal: the black one is twice the height of each of the others, so it covers half the flag. History: Libya has changed its flag repeatedly, in step with its politics. The tricolor was introduced in 1951 at independence from Italian colonial rule. It combined the colors used by the country's regions: red for Fezzan, black for Cyrenaica, and green for Tripolitania, with the crescent and star for Islam. Muammar Gaddafi's 1969 coup replaced it, and by 1977 the national flag was a plain green field standing for his own political ideology. The National Transitional Council reinstated the original tricolor on August 3, 2011, during the civil war that ended Gaddafi's rule. ### The Flag of Liechtenstein URL: https://www.flagdb.com/liechtenstein Adopted: 1921-10-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liechtenstein Last updated: 2026-06-19 The flag of Liechtenstein has two horizontal bands of equal width, blue over red, with a gold crown on the hoist side of the blue band. Its proportions are 3:5. History: Liechtenstein adopted a plain blue and red bicolor, with no emblem, on June 24, 1852. At the 1936 Olympic Games it turned out that the flag was identical to Haiti's. To tell the two apart, Liechtenstein added the gold crown on June 24, 1937. The crown stands for the Prince of Liechtenstein and for the unity of the people with the princely house, and it has been part of the design ever since. ### The Flag of Lithuania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/lithuania Adopted: 1820 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuania Last updated: 2026-06-19 The flag of Lithuania is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, green, and red from the top down. Yellow represents the sun and prosperity, green the forests and the countryside, and red the courage and the blood shed for independence. History: The current flag was adopted on March 20, 1989, but the design goes back to the early 20th century and the struggle for independence from the Russian Empire. It was first used officially in 1918, when Lithuania declared independence. Under Soviet and Nazi occupation, from 1940 to 1989, the flag was banned and replaced by the occupiers' own. Its return in 1989 was an act of resistance in itself, and it was reinstated in law shortly before Lithuania regained full independence in 1990. ### The Flag of Luxembourg URL: https://www.flagdb.com/luxembourg Adopted: 1972-06-23 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxembourg Last updated: 2026-06-20 The flag of Luxembourg has three horizontal stripes of equal width: red, white, and light blue from top to bottom. It is often mistaken for the flag of the Netherlands, which uses the same arrangement and similar proportions, but Luxembourg's blue is noticeably lighter and its red differs too. History: Luxembourg's flag dates from the 19th century, though its colors have been associated with the Grand Duchy since the 13th century and the House of Luxembourg. The tricolor was formally adopted on June 23, 1972, the point at which the exact shade of blue was finally fixed in law. Its resemblance to the Dutch flag comes from shared history rather than imitation, and it has been debated periodically without ever leading to a change. ### The Flag of Macau URL: https://www.flagdb.com/macau Adopted: 1993-03-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau Last updated: 2026-06-20 The flag of Macau is green, with a white lotus flower above a stylized bridge and water emblem, and five five-pointed stars above the lotus, one large and four small. The lotus is the floral emblem of Macau. The bridge is the Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge, which links the Macau Peninsula and Taipa Island, and the water beneath it marks Macau out as a coastal city. The five stars echo the flag of China and stand for Macau's relationship with the People's Republic. History: The flag of Macau was officially adopted on December 20, 1999, the day Macau was handed back to China by Portugal and became a Special Administrative Region (SAR). The design was selected from a public competition to represent Macau's new status under the principle of 'one country, two systems'. This arrangement allows Macau to maintain its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, and immigration policy for 50 years after the handover. ### The Flag of Madagascar URL: https://www.flagdb.com/madagascar Adopted: 1958-10-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar Last updated: 2026-06-21 The flag of Madagascar has two horizontal bands, red over green, with a vertical white stripe at the hoist. White stands for the nation's traditions, red for sovereignty, and green for hope. History: Madagascar adopted the flag on October 14, 1958, ahead of independence from France on June 26, 1960. The red and white are said to come from the Merina kingdom, which dominated much of the island before colonization, while green represents the Hova, the common people, who pushed hard for independence. The flag replaced the French tricolore. ### The Flag of Malawi URL: https://www.flagdb.com/malawi Adopted: 1964-07-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malawi Last updated: 2026-06-21 The flag of Malawi consists of three horizontal stripes of black, red, and green, with a rising sun in the center of the black stripe. The black stripe represents the African people, the red symbolizes the blood of their struggle for freedom, and the green represents the country's natural beauty. The rising sun signifies the dawn of hope and freedom for the continent of Africa. History: The flag of Malawi was officially adopted on July 6, 1964, following the country's independence from British colonial rule. The original design featured a rising sun with a full circle at the flag's hoist. In 2010, the flag was briefly changed to a new design, where the sun was moved to the center of the flag and had more rays, representing the economic progress of Malawi. However, this change was met with significant public opposition, and in 2012, the government reverted to the original 1964 design, which remains in use today. ### The Flag of Malaysia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/malaysia Adopted: 1963-09-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia Last updated: 2026-06-22 The flag of Malaysia, known as the 'Jalur Gemilang' (Stripes of Glory), has 14 alternating red and white horizontal stripes and a blue canton bearing a crescent and a 14-point star, the Bintang Persekutuan or Federal Star. The stripes stand for the equal status of the 13 member states and the federal territories, the star and crescent for Islam, the country's official religion, and the blue canton for the unity of the Malaysian people. History: The flag of Malaysia was first raised on 16th September 1963, the day Malaysia was formed through the merging of Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak, and Singapore (Singapore later left Malaysia in 1965). The design goes back further, to a national flag competition held in 1949 for the Federation of Malaya, won by Mohamed Hamzah, a 29-year-old architect working for the Public Works Department in Johor Bahru at the time. Initially, the flag featured 11 stripes and a star with 11 points, representing the states and territories that formed Malaya. It was modified to its current form to reflect the new political realities after the formation of Malaysia, increasing the number of stripes and points on the star to 14 to include Sabah, Sarawak, and the federal territories. ### The Flag of Mali URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mali Adopted: 1961-03-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali Last updated: 2026-07-06 The national flag of Mali consists of three vertical stripes of equal width, displayed from left to right in the following order: green, gold (yellow), and red. These colors are pan-African and symbolize nature (green), purity and mineral wealth (gold), and the blood shed for independence (red), respectively. History: The flag of Mali was officially adopted on March 1, 1961, following the country's independence from France on September 22, 1960. Mali initially formed the Mali Federation with Senegal, which used a flag with a similar color scheme but included a black human figure (the kanaga) in the center. After the dissolution of the federation in August 1960, Mali chose to remove the kanaga symbol, resulting in its current flag. The colors were inspired by those of the African Democratic Rally, a political party active in several French African colonies, and are also meant to reflect African unity and independence. ### The Flag of Malta URL: https://www.flagdb.com/malta Adopted: 1964-09-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta Last updated: 2026-07-13 The flag of Malta consists of two vertical halves: white on the hoist side and red on the fly side. It also features a representation of the George Cross, edged in red, in the canton (upper hoist quarter) of the white stripe. The George Cross is a symbol of bravery and is one of the highest awards for gallantry in the United Kingdom and former British colonies. The proportions of the flag are traditionally 2:3. History: The flag of Malta has origins that trace back to the Norman invasion of 1091, when Count Roger I of Sicily granted the island a flag which was a simple bi-color of white and red quarters. This basic design has persisted through the centuries with variations over time. The current flag was adopted on September 21, 1964, the day Malta became independent from British rule. The George Cross was added to the flag's canton in 1943 by King George VI of the United Kingdom in recognition of the Maltese people's bravery during World War II, specifically their heroism during the Siege of Malta. The George Cross award was originally bestowed upon the entire island, and incorporating it into the national flag was a way to honor this collective act of valor. ### The Flag of Martinique URL: https://www.flagdb.com/martinique Adopted: 1766 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinique Last updated: 2026-06-22 Martinique's own flag, adopted by the Assembly of Martinique on 2 February 2023, has a red triangle based at the hoist and two horizontal bands behind it, green above and black below. It represents the island at cultural and sporting events. Because Martinique is an overseas region of France, the French tricolore remains the flag of state. The older Snake Flag, a blue field with a white cross and a white fer-de-lance viper in each quarter, is a colonial-era design that is still recognized but heavily contested. History: The Snake Flag goes back to an ordinance of 4 August 1766 setting the ensign for ships of French Martinique and Saint Lucia. It carries snakes usually taken to be the fer-de-lance, the venomous viper found on the island. It was never the flag of the island itself, it saw little local use before the 21st century, and in October 2018 the National Gendarmerie was ordered to stop using it after complaints that it stood for slavery. Martinique tried twice to give itself a flag: the Ipséité design, unveiled in 2019, was annulled by the administrative court in 2021 because the executive council had no power to choose it. A public consultation followed, and on 2 February 2023 the Assembly of Martinique adopted the red, green and black flag that anticolonial activists had been flying since the 1960s. ### The Flag of Mauritania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mauritania Adopted: 2017-08-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritania Last updated: 2026-06-23 The flag of Mauritania is a green field with a gold crescent and star at the center, the crescent pointing upward, and a red horizontal stripe along the top and bottom edges. Green and gold are traditional Pan-African colors; the red stripes stand for the sacrifices made by the country's people. The crescent and star are common Islamic symbols and point to Mauritania's majority Muslim population. History: Mauritania adopted its flag on April 1, 1959, more than a year before independence from France on November 28, 1960. The original design was just the green field with the gold crescent and star. The red stripes were added in 2017 after a national referendum, to honor those who fought for independence and to set the flag further apart from other Islamic countries' flags. The change caused considerable national debate. ### The Flag of Mauritius URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mauritius Adopted: 1968-03-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius Last updated: 2026-06-23 The flag of Mauritius is four horizontal stripes of equal width: red, blue, yellow, and green from top to bottom. The colors stand for the island's history, its independence, and its natural resources. History: The flag was adopted on March 12, 1968, the day Mauritius gained independence from Britain. Red stands for the struggle for freedom, blue for the Indian Ocean around the island, yellow for the new light of independence, and green for the island's agriculture and vegetation. Before independence Mauritius used the British Blue Ensign, with the Union Jack in the canton and the colonial coat of arms in the fly. The current design came out of a national competition. ### The Flag of Mayotte URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mayotte Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayotte Last updated: 2026-06-24 Mayotte is a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, and its official flag is the French Tricolore: three vertical bands of blue, white, and red, identical to the national flag of France. Alongside it, a local banner is widely used: a white field carrying the departmental coat of arms, two silver seahorses flanking a shield with a silver crescent above and two gold ylang-ylang flowers below, with the motto Ra Hachiri. That banner has no official standing as a territorial flag. History: Mayotte passed through several colonial powers before becoming a French territory in the 19th century. The French Tricolore is its only official flag, a position confirmed when it became an overseas department in 2011 following a 2009 referendum in which most Mahorais voted to become an integral part of France rather than take independence. The local arms behind the unofficial banner were adopted by the General Council on 23 July 1982, designed by Michel Chabin and drawn by Pascale Santerre, and the department took them over in 2011. Flying the Tricolore marks the island's connection to France, administratively and symbolically, and its position as an outermost region of the European Union in the Indian Ocean. ### The Flag of Mexico URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mexico Adopted: 1810-09-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico Last updated: 2026-06-24 The flag of Mexico is a vertical tricolor of green, white, and red with the national coat of arms (an eagle holding a serpent in its beak and talon, perched on a prickly pear cactus) in the center of the white stripe. Green stands for hope and victory, white for purity and faith, and red for the blood of the national heroes. History: Mexico's flag has changed repeatedly since the fight for independence from Spain began in 1810. The first version, adopted in 1821, had the vertical green, white, and red stripes but no coat of arms. The emblem has been redrawn many times since, above all the eagle, which was updated to suit changing artistic styles and political circumstances. The current flag dates from 1968, which fixed the size, proportions, and detailed design of the coat of arms. ### The Flag of Micronesia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/micronesia Adopted: 1978-11-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federated_States_of_Micronesia Last updated: 2026-06-25 The flag of Micronesia consists of a light blue field with four white stars arranged in a diamond pattern in the center. The blue represents the Pacific Ocean, while the four stars represent the four states of Micronesia: Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. History: The flag was adopted on November 30, 1978, when Micronesia declared independence from the United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. The light blue field is the ocean, which matters enormously to a federation of more than 600 islands, and the shade is taken from the flag of the United Nations, whose trusteeship shaped the region's path to self-determination. ### The Flag of Moldova URL: https://www.flagdb.com/moldova Adopted: 1990-11-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moldova Last updated: 2026-06-25 The flag of Moldova is a vertical tricolor of blue, yellow, and red with the national coat of arms in the center of the yellow band. The arms show a golden eagle holding an Orthodox Christian cross in its beak and a scepter and an olive branch in its talons, flanked by a floral ornament. Moldovan law sets out the flag's proportions and the details of the arms. History: Moldova adopted its flag on November 6, 1990, shortly before the Soviet Union dissolved. The design follows the national flag of Romania, since most of Moldova's population is ethnically Romanian and the two countries share a cultural and historical inheritance. The coat of arms at the center is what distinguishes the two flags, and it stands for Moldovan sovereignty. The flag replaced the Moldavian SSR's Soviet-era banner, a red field with blue and white horizontal stripes at the bottom and a hammer and sickle. Moldova became independent on August 27, 1991. ### The Flag of Monaco URL: https://www.flagdb.com/monaco Adopted: 1881-04-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco Last updated: 2026-06-26 The flag of Monaco is two horizontal bands of equal size, red on top and white below. The colors are the heraldic colors of the House of Grimaldi, which has ruled Monaco since the 13th century. History: The flag comes from the coat of arms of the Grimaldi family, which uses the same red and white. The current design was officially adopted on April 4, 1881, though the colors themselves go back far earlier. The design has barely changed since, and it marks Monaco's sovereignty and its separateness from the French Riviera around it. ### The Flag of Mongolia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mongolia Adopted: 1992-02-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolia Last updated: 2026-06-29 The flag of Mongolia is three vertical stripes: red at the hoist, blue in the center, red at the fly. On the hoist stripe sits the yellow Soyombo, the national emblem, which stands for freedom and independence among other things. Blue is the sky, and red stands for progress and prosperity. History: Mongolia adopted its current flag on February 12, 1992, after the country's transition to democracy, though the basic elements go back to the 1940s. The 1940 version also carried the Soyombo but arranged its colors differently, with a single blue stripe. Several modifications followed, mostly to the Soyombo's design. The 1992 change marked Mongolia's move away from Soviet influence. ### The Flag of Montenegro URL: https://www.flagdb.com/montenegro Adopted: 2004-07-13 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montenegro Last updated: 2026-08-03 The flag of Montenegro is a red field with a gold border and the country's coat of arms at the centre. The arms show a golden double-headed eagle holding a golden scepter and orb, with a lion passant on a green field on the eagle's chest. The proportions are 1:2. History: Montenegro's flag has changed several times as the country's politics changed. The current one was adopted on July 13, 2004, during the push for independence from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. Its design harks back to the royal standards of the Kingdom of Montenegro (1910-1918), and the double-headed eagle is a traditional symbol of the Petrović-Njegoš dynasty. Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in June 2006, and the flag was part of a wider effort to bring back its pre-Yugoslav symbols. ### The Flag of Montserrat URL: https://www.flagdb.com/montserrat Adopted: 1999-01-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat Last updated: 2026-02-02 The flag of Montserrat is a British Blue Ensign: the Union Jack in the upper hoist corner and the Coat of Arms of Montserrat on the fly side. The shield shows a woman in a green dress holding a harp and a cross. She is Erin, the personification of Ireland, and she is there because of the island's Irish heritage. History: Montserrat is a British Overseas Territory and its flag says so. The island was granted its own shield on April 10, 1909, and the Blue Ensign carrying it became Montserrat's official flag in 1960. The version flown today dates from January 25, 1999, when the shield was enlarged and the white disc behind it was replaced by a white outline so the badge could be made out at a distance. The Irish symbols in the coat of arms refer to the island's early settlers, who were mostly of Irish descent, and no other British Overseas Territory flag carries anything like them. Apart from that adjustment the design has barely changed. ### The Flag of Morocco URL: https://www.flagdb.com/morocco Adopted: 1915-11-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morocco Last updated: 2026-02-02 Morocco's national flag is a red field with a green interlaced pentagram at the center, known as the Seal of Solomon. The red stands for hardiness, bravery, strength, and valor. The green of the five-pointed star stands for love, joy, wisdom, peace, and hope, and points to the country's Islamic faith. History: The flag's roots go back to the 17th century and the Alaouite dynasty, which still rules Morocco. The plain red field was chosen by the dynasty in 1666, red being the color of a royal family that claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad. The green pentagram was added in 1915, under Sultan Yusef, both to distinguish Morocco's flag from others and to mark the country's allegiance to Islam. It has not changed since, surviving the French and Spanish protectorates from 1912 through independence in 1956. ### The Flag of Mozambique URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mozambique Adopted: 1983-05-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique Last updated: 2026-02-03 The flag of Mozambique has three horizontal stripes, green, black edged in white, and yellow, with a red triangle at the hoist carrying a yellow star, a book, and a crossed hoe and AK-47 with a bayonet. The symbols stand for the country's agriculture, its education, and its fight for independence. History: Mozambique adopted its current flag on 1 May 1983, eight years after independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975. The design owes a great deal to the flag of the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO), the party that led the country to independence. The AK-47 stands for defense and vigilance, and it is one of very few national flags anywhere to carry a modern rifle. The design has stayed largely unchanged since 1983, despite recurring discussion about removing the rifle. Green is the land, black the African continent, yellow the country's minerals, and red the struggle for independence. ### The Flag of Myanmar URL: https://www.flagdb.com/myanmar Adopted: 2010-10-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanmar Last updated: 2026-02-03 The flag of Myanmar, also called Burma, has three horizontal stripes of yellow, green, and red, with a large white five-pointed star across the center. Yellow stands for solidarity, green for peace and the country's greenery, and red for courage and determination. The white star is the union of the country. History: Myanmar adopted its current flag on October 21, 2010, replacing the one in use since 1974. The change came during a run of reforms towards a more civilian government after decades of military rule. The older flag had a red field with a blue canton in the top left holding a white cogwheel and a rice plant inside a ring of 14 white stars. The new design was proposed ahead of the 2010 general elections, and reactions to it were mixed, partly because it arrived alongside so much other political change. ### The Flag of Namibia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/namibia Adopted: 1990-03-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namibia Last updated: 2026-02-04 A red diagonal band edged in white splits the flag of Namibia into two triangles. The upper one is blue and carries a golden sun with twelve triangular rays; the lower one is green. The colors point to the country's natural resources, to peace, and to the hope of unity among its people. History: Namibia adopted its flag on March 21, 1990, the day it became independent of South African rule. The design won a competition that drew more than 800 entries. Red stands for the Namibian people and their heroism, white for peace and unity, blue for the sky and the Atlantic, green for agriculture and vegetation, and the golden sun for life and energy. The colors owe a good deal to the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), the liberation movement that became the country's dominant political party, but the design was adjusted so that it spoke for all Namibians. ### The Flag of Nauru URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nauru Adopted: 1968-01-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nauru Last updated: 2026-02-04 The flag of Nauru has a blue field with a narrow yellow stripe across the middle for the equator. Below the stripe, towards the hoist, sits a white twelve-pointed star, one point for each of the island's original tribes, placed to show that Nauru lies just south of the line. The blue is the Pacific Ocean that surrounds the island. History: Nauru adopted its flag on January 31, 1968, when the island became independent of a UN trusteeship administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The design came out of a local competition that asked for symbols of the island's past, its place in the Pacific, and its hopes for the future. The star, the yellow stripe, and the blue field were chosen to carry all three. ### The Flag of Nepal URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nepal Adopted: 1962-12-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal Last updated: 2026-02-05 Nepal has the world's only national flag that is not a rectangle. Two crimson pennants sit one above the other inside a blue border. The upper one carries a white moon with eight rays and a crescent, the lower a white twelve-rayed sun. Crimson stands for bravery and the blue border for peace, and the sun and moon carry the hope that Nepal will last as long as they do. History: The design goes back to the 19th century, when it grew out of the banners of rival military factions inside the country. It was adopted as the national flag in 1962, after Nepal established a constitutional government. The sun and moon were understood to say that the country would outlast any particular ruling dynasty or political system, and the flag has since become a standard shorthand for Nepalese identity and sovereignty. ### The Flag of New Caledonia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-caledonia Adopted: 2010-07-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonia Last updated: 2026-02-06 New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, officially recognizes two flags. One is the French Tricolor, which marks its status as a French overseas territory. The other is the flag of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which stands for the indigenous Kanak people. The Congress of New Caledonia voted on July 13, 2010 for the two to fly together, and they were raised side by side for the first time on July 17, 2010. The FLNKS flag carries blue for the sky and the ocean around the islands, red for blood shed in the struggle for independence, and green for the land, with a yellow disk bearing a flèche faînière, a traditional Kanak symbol. History: The history of the New Caledonian flag runs alongside the territory's colonial past and the push for recognition of the indigenous Kanak people. Until 2010 the only official flag was the French Tricolor, in place since France claimed the territory in 1853. Adopting the Kanak flag as a second official flag in 2010 followed years of conflict and negotiation over greater autonomy within the French Republic. The dual-flag arrangement is an attempt to hold the French and Kanak identities together, and it remains bound up with the argument over New Caledonia's future political status. ### The Flag of New Zealand URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-zealand Adopted: 1903-03-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand Last updated: 2026-02-06 The flag of New Zealand, also called the New Zealand Ensign, is a dark blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, a record of the country's ties to the United Kingdom. To the fly are four red stars with white borders, the Southern Cross, which places New Zealand in the South Pacific. History: Adopted on March 24, 1902, the flag of New Zealand was drawn up for use on government ships in the late 19th century before it became the national flag. The design carries both the colonial relationship with Britain and the country's position in the southern hemisphere. It has been argued over periodically, most seriously in the 2015-2016 referendum, but the original design was kept. ### The Flag of Nicaragua URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nicaragua Adopted: 1908-09-05 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaragua Last updated: 2026-02-07 The flag of Nicaragua has three horizontal stripes with the coat of arms in the middle of the white one. The top and bottom stripes are blue for the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and the white between them is the land and peace. Inside the coat of arms, a triangle holds five volcanoes, a cap of liberty, a sun, and a rainbow, ringed by the words 'República de Nicaragua' above and 'América Central' below. History: Nicaragua's flag has changed several times since independence from Spain in 1821. The country was first part of the Federal Republic of Central America, and its flag followed the Argentine flag, an influence traced to the Argentine revolutionary Manuel Belgrano. The current design was first adopted on September 4, 1908, a deliberate return to the Federal Republic's colors, and it was not made official in law until August 27, 1971, when a decree fixed its proportions and the details of the coat of arms. The meanings attached to it have stayed much the same: the country's position between two seas, its hope for peace, and the idea of Central American unity. ### The Flag of Niger URL: https://www.flagdb.com/niger Adopted: 1959-11-23 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger Last updated: 2026-02-07 The flag of Niger has three horizontal stripes of equal width, orange over white over green, with a small orange circle in the middle of the white one. Orange stands for the Sahara, green for the fertile parts of the country, and white for purity. The circle is read as the sun, or as independence. History: Niger's flag was adopted on November 23, 1959, shortly before the country became independent of France on August 3, 1960. The design was meant to describe the country and to mark the move to independence, and its colors are tied to Niger's geography and to what the Nigerien people hoped for. Through the political changes and difficulties Niger has faced since, the flag has stayed as it was. ### The Flag of Nigeria URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nigeria Adopted: 1960-10-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria Last updated: 2026-02-08 The flag of Nigeria has three vertical stripes of equal width, green on the outside and white in the middle. Green stands for the country's vegetation and its agriculture, and white for peace and unity. History: Nigeria's flag was adopted on October 1, 1960, the day the country became independent of Britain. It came out of a national competition held in 1959 and was designed by a student, Michael Taiwo Akinkunmi. His original drawing put a red sun with streaming rays at the top of the white stripe; the sun was dropped from the final version, leaving the three plain bands. The flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Niue URL: https://www.flagdb.com/niue Adopted: 1975-10-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niue Last updated: 2026-02-08 The flag of Niue has a yellow field with the Union Jack in the upper canton, a record of the island's connection to the United Kingdom. Inside the Union Jack is a large blue star for Niue itself, surrounded by four smaller stars for the island's four main districts. The yellow field stands for the sunshine and warmth of the island. History: Niue adopted its flag on October 15, 1975. Before that, as a territory associated with New Zealand, it used the New Zealand flag for official purposes. The new design was chosen to set out Niue's own identity alongside its cultural and political ties to New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and it came as part of the move to greater self-governance that followed the 1974 constitution establishing free association with New Zealand. Keeping the Union Jack acknowledged the existing relationships; the rest of the flag is Niuean. ### The Flag of Norfolk Island URL: https://www.flagdb.com/norfolk-island Adopted: 1979-06-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norfolk_Island Last updated: 2026-02-09 The flag of Norfolk Island is a vertical triband, green on the outside and white in the middle, with a green Norfolk Island pine in the center. The tree is native to the island and stands in for its landscape and its identity. History: Norfolk Island, a small island in the Pacific, has a complicated settlement history that includes a long spell as a penal colony. The Norfolk Island Council picked the winning design on June 6, 1979, and the flag became official on January 17, 1980, the day the Norfolk Island Flag and Public Seal Act 1979 commenced. Until then, as an Australian territory, it had no flag of its own and generally used the Australian national flag for official purposes. Adopting one was a step towards asserting a distinct identity, and the design went straight to the Norfolk Island pine, the plant most closely tied to the island and to the way islanders think about it. ### The Flag of North Korea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/north-korea Adopted: 1948-09-08 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea Last updated: 2026-02-09 The flag of North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is a horizontal triband of blue, red, and blue. The central red band is wider than the others and carries a white disk holding a red five-pointed star, and narrow white stripes separate the red from the blue. The colors and symbols are tied to the state's revolutionary history, its socialism, and the blood shed in the fight for independence. History: North Korea adopted its flag on September 8, 1948, shortly after the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established. Kim Il-sung, the country's founding leader, proposed the design, which was meant to set the flag apart from South Korea's and to carry the new state's ideology. The red star stands for the leadership of the Communist Party, the white disk for the Korean people, and the blue stripes for sovereignty, peace, and friendship. The flag is a fixture at official events and public gatherings. ### The Flag of North Macedonia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/north-macedonia Adopted: 1995-10-05 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Macedonia Last updated: 2026-02-10 The flag of North Macedonia is a red field with a stylized yellow sun at the center, its eight rays broadening as they run out to the edges. The sun is known as the Sun of Liberty. Red and yellow are traditional Macedonian colors and carry a long history for Macedonians. History: North Macedonia has changed its flag more than once, and each change followed a shift in the country's politics. The current design was adopted on October 5, 1995, ending a dispute with Greece over the Vergina Sun, a symbol tied to ancient Greek history that had appeared on the previous flag. The new design came as part of the interim accord signed by Macedonia (now North Macedonia) and Greece, an agreement that also set up negotiations over the country's name. The replacement sun was chosen to keep a recognizably Macedonian symbol on the flag while removing the emblem Greece objected to. ### The Flag of Norway URL: https://www.flagdb.com/norway Adopted: 1821-07-13 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway Last updated: 2026-02-10 The flag of Norway is a red field with a blue cross outlined in white, running to all four edges. The cross sits closer to the hoist than the fly, in the Nordic manner. The three colors place Norway among its Scandinavian neighbors while keeping the flag distinct from any of them. History: The current Norwegian flag was adopted on July 17, 1821. Fredrik Meltzer, a member of the Norwegian parliament, proposed it: a Nordic cross in the colors of the French tricolor, which tied Norway to its neighbors and to the revolutionary politics of the day at the same time. Before 1821 Norway had flown a succession of flags belonging to its unions with Denmark and then Sweden. Full recognition took much longer. It did not arrive until 1899, while Norway was still in union with Sweden, though the public and the merchant fleet had been using the flag steadily since 1821. Red, white, and blue were widely read as the colors of liberty and independence. ### The Flag of Oman URL: https://www.flagdb.com/oman Adopted: 1995-04-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oman Last updated: 2026-02-13 The flag of Oman has three horizontal stripes of white, red, and green, with a red vertical stripe running down the hoist. The national emblem sits in the upper hoist corner: a pair of crossed swords over a khanjar, the traditional Omani dagger. White is read as peace and prosperity, red as the battles the Omani people have fought, and green as the fertility of the country. History: The flag of Oman was adopted on December 17, 1970, shortly after Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said came to power and began a wide program of modernization. Before 1970 Oman flew a plain red banner, a color common across the region and tied to the Arab caliphates and dynasties. Adding the white and green stripes and the national emblem was part of Qaboos's effort to give the country a distinct identity of its own rather than a generic regional one. The design was revised on April 25, 1995, when the three horizontal stripes were made equal in width, and a royal decree of May 22, 2004 set the specification in force today. ### The Flag of Pakistan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/pakistan Adopted: 1947-08-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan Last updated: 2026-02-14 The flag of Pakistan is dark green with a white vertical stripe at the hoist and a white crescent moon and five-pointed star in the green field. The green is for Islam, the white stripe for the country's religious minorities. The crescent and star are long-standing Islamic symbols. History: Pakistan adopted its flag on August 11, 1947, three days before independence from British rule. Syed Amir-uddin Kedwaii designed it, working from the flag of the All-India Muslim League, the party that had campaigned for a Muslim state on the Indian subcontinent. The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan approved the design, and the white hoist stripe was written into it as a commitment to minority rights rather than added later. It has flown on public and private buildings ever since. ### The Flag of Palau URL: https://www.flagdb.com/palau Adopted: 1981 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palau Last updated: 2026-02-14 The flag of Palau is a light blue field with a large yellow disk set slightly toward the hoist rather than dead center. The blue is the ocean and Palau's place in it. The yellow disk is the full moon, which in Palauan culture is associated with peace and tranquility. History: Palau adopted its flag on January 1, 1981, when it became self-governing after years inside the United Nations Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, which the United States administered. The design came out of a public competition and was meant to be recognizably Palauan rather than generically Pacific. Both the light blue background and the off-center placement of the disk were deliberate: the first for the ocean the country sits in, the second for the moon and the part it plays in Palauan tradition and ceremony. ### The Flag of Palestine URL: https://www.flagdb.com/palestine Adopted: 1988-11-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine Last updated: 2026-02-15 The flag of Palestine has three equal horizontal stripes, black, white and green from top to bottom, with a red triangle set against the hoist. It is the central symbol of Palestinian identity and nationalism, and it carries cultural, historical and political weight at once. History: The flag traces back to the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I and is a modified version of the Revolt's flag. The Arab Higher Committee adopted it in 1948. Each color stands for a dynasty: black for the Abbasids, white for the Umayyads, green for the Fatimids, and red for the Hashemite family that led the revolt. The Palestine Liberation Organization adopted it in 1964, and the Palestinian National Authority after that, by which point it had come to stand for the Palestinian people and their claim to a state of their own. ### The Flag of Panama URL: https://www.flagdb.com/panama Adopted: 1925-03-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama Last updated: 2026-02-15 The flag of Panama is quartered. The upper hoist and lower fly quarters are white, each with a star in the center, blue in one and red in the other. The upper fly quarter is red and the lower hoist quarter is blue. White is peace, the blue star is purity and honesty, and the red star is authority and law. History: Panama first flew its flag on November 3, 1903, the day it separated from Colombia. Manuel E. Amador, son of Panama's first president Manuel Amador Guerrero, drew the design, and María de la Ossa de Amador sewed the first one. The quarters were rearranged before the year was out, the National Assembly adopted the result provisionally by Law 64 of 1904, and Law 48 of March 25, 1925 adopted it definitively. Blue and red were the colors of Colombia's Conservative and Liberal parties, and by extension of the factions inside Panama. Splitting the flag between them, with white in the other two quarters, was a statement about how the new republic expected its politics to work: two parties sharing a country rather than fighting over it. ### The Flag of Papua New Guinea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/papua-new-guinea Adopted: 1971-07-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea Last updated: 2026-02-16 The flag of Papua New Guinea is split by a diagonal running from the upper hoist corner to the lower fly corner. The lower triangle, on the hoist side, is black and carries the Southern Cross in white stars; the upper triangle, on the fly side, is red and carries a golden Raggiana bird-of-paradise. Black and red are traditional Papua New Guinean colors, and the two halves put the country's cultures and its wildlife on the same flag. History: The flag was adopted on July 1, 1971, five years before Papua New Guinea became independent from Australia on September 16, 1975. Susan Karike designed it; she was fifteen at the time, and her entry won a national competition. Black and red are traditional Papua New Guinean colors, the Southern Cross has been a navigational marker for the peoples of the Pacific for as long as anyone has sailed there, and the Raggiana bird-of-paradise is the national bird. Settling on a flag well before independence was itself part of the process of becoming a country. ### The Flag of Paraguay URL: https://www.flagdb.com/paraguay Adopted: 2013-07-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraguay Last updated: 2026-02-16 Paraguay's flag is the only national flag with a different emblem on each side. It has three horizontal stripes of equal width, red on top, white in the middle, blue at the bottom. The obverse carries the national coat of arms; the reverse carries the seal of the treasury. History: A red, white, and blue tricolor was in use in Paraguay from 1812, and the design took its present form in 1842, which makes it one of the oldest national flags still in use. The changes since have almost all been to the two emblems rather than to the flag itself. The colors are usually traced to the French tricolor and the ideals that came with it, which reached Paraguay around its independence from Spain in 1811. The two-sided design is Paraguay's alone: one face for the state, the other for the treasury. The coat of arms and the treasury seal have both been redrawn over the years, but the stripes and their meanings have not moved. ### The Flag of Peru URL: https://www.flagdb.com/peru Adopted: 1825-02-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peru Last updated: 2026-02-17 The national flag of Peru is three vertical stripes of equal width, red, white and red. The state and war versions carry the national coat of arms on the white stripe; the civil version, the one ordinary Peruvians fly, has no emblem at all. Red is the blood spilled for independence and white is peace. History: Peru first adopted this flag on February 25, 1825, four years after José de San Martín declared independence from Spain. San Martín came up with the original design, and it has been modified more than once since. Where the colors came from is disputed; one account traces them to the red and white of the flag of the Army of the Andes, which did much of the fighting that liberated Peru. The exact shade of red and the proportions have been adjusted over the years, and the current specification, fixing both, dates from March 31, 1950. ### The Flag of Poland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/poland Adopted: 1919-08-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland Last updated: 2026-02-17 The flag of Poland is two horizontal stripes of equal width, white on top and red below. The Polish constitution names these as the national colors. Two versions are in use: the plain bicolor, and one with the national coat of arms on the white stripe, flown abroad and at sea. History: White and red come from Polish heraldry, where a white eagle on a red field has been the emblem of Poland since the 13th century. The current form of the flag was adopted on August 1, 1919, shortly after Poland regained independence at the end of the First World War. It was carried as a sign of resistance under foreign occupation, through the Second World War and again by the Solidarity movement in the 1980s. The design has barely changed since. ### The Flag of Portugal URL: https://www.flagdb.com/portugal Adopted: 1912-06-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal Last updated: 2026-02-18 The flag of Portugal is divided vertically, green on the hoist side and red on the fly. The national coat of arms sits over the boundary between them: a shield holding five blue shields arranged in a cross, each marked with five white dots, inside a red border bearing seven gold castles, set against an armillary sphere. The proportion is 2:3. History: Portugal adopted its current flag on June 30, 1911, months after the republic replaced the monarchy in the revolution of 1910. Green and red were the colors of the Republican movement. Green is usually glossed as hope and red as the blood of those who died serving the country. The coat of arms at the center is far older, medieval in origin and reworked repeatedly over the centuries. The armillary sphere behind it is a navigational instrument, a reference to Portugal's voyages during the Age of Discoveries. Before 1911 the flag carried the blue and white of the House of Braganza, the last royal family to rule the country. ### The Flag of Puerto Rico URL: https://www.flagdb.com/puerto-rico Adopted: 1895 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerto_Rico Last updated: 2026-02-18 The flag of Puerto Rico has five equal horizontal bands, red at the top and bottom alternating with white, and a blue equilateral triangle at the hoist carrying a large white five-pointed star. The design closely follows the Cuban flag, a deliberate signal of solidarity with Cuba against Spanish colonial rule. History: Puerto Rican revolutionaries in New York City first showed the flag on December 22, 1895, while campaigning for independence from Spain. Its resemblance to the Cuban flag was the point: the two movements were fighting the same empire. An earlier revolt against Spain, the Grito de Lares of 1868, had flown a different flag: a white cross dividing the field into two blue quarters above two red ones, with a white star in the upper hoist. The 1895 design did not fly on the island itself until the Intentona de Yauco in March 1897. After Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the United States at the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, the flag went without official recognition. It was adopted as the official flag of Puerto Rico only on July 24, 1952, when the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was established. The shade of blue has drifted over the years from a light sky blue to a dark navy, and which shade is correct is still argued about. ### The Flag of Qatar URL: https://www.flagdb.com/qatar Adopted: 1971-07-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar Last updated: 2026-02-19 The flag of Qatar is a maroon field with a broad white band down the hoist side, the two separated by a serrated line of nine points. The maroon is particular to Qatar. The nine points are said to mark the country as the ninth of the 'reconciled emirates' of the Persian Gulf under the Qatari-British treaty of 1916. History: Qatar flew a plain red flag, like much of the Arabian Peninsula, before adding a white field in the 19th century to set itself apart. The red itself changed. The dyes available at the time faded in the sun toward the deep brown-red now known as Qatar maroon. The maroon and white design with the serrated division was adopted on July 9, 1971, shortly before Qatar gained independence from Britain that year. Neither the design nor the color has changed since. ### The Flag of Réunion URL: https://www.flagdb.com/reunion Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9union Last updated: 2026-04-16 The flag of Réunion is not officially recognized by the French government, as the island is an overseas department of France, which officially uses the French national flag. However, a regional flag has gained popularity among the local population and for unofficial use. This flag, known as the Flag of Réunion or Lo Mahaveli, has a blue field with a yellow ring cut by a red, white, and green tricolor running from the lower hoist corner to the upper fly corner. The colors stand for the island's landscape and its mixed heritage. History: The flag of Réunion, widely recognized today, was created in 2003 by a local organization named L'Amicale des Originaires de l'Inde à la Réunion. Its design refers to the island's mixed population, built up over centuries from African, European, Indian, and Chinese settlement. Blue is the sky and the surrounding ocean, the yellow circle is unity and the sun, green is the landscape, white the snow on the mountain peaks, and red the island's volcanic ground. It turns up constantly at cultural and sporting events, but the local government has never adopted it, and it does not replace the French tricolore in any official setting. ### The Flag of Romania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/romania Adopted: 1848-06-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania Last updated: 2026-02-19 The flag of Romania is three vertical stripes of equal size, blue at the hoist, then yellow, then red. The colors go back to the Romanian national movement of the early 19th century and are read as liberty (blue), justice (yellow), and fraternity (red). History: Romania's tricolor dates to the early 19th century and takes its format from the flag of the French Revolution. Wallachian revolutionaries fighting Ottoman rule were using the colors by the 1830s, and during the revolutions of 1848 the tricolor became the emblem of the national movement in both Wallachia and Moldavia, the regions that later formed Romania. The constitution of 1866 named blue, yellow, and red as the national colors, and in 1867 the Assembly of Deputies fixed them as vertical stripes in the order used in 1848. Successive governments then added their own arms and seals to the middle stripe. The plain tricolor Romania flies now, with nothing in the center, dates from December 27, 1989, when the revolution that brought down the communist regime abolished its emblem. ### The Flag of Russia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/russia Adopted: 1696-05-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia Last updated: 2026-02-20 The flag of Russia, also known as the Tri-Color Flag, is three equal horizontal fields: white on top, blue in the middle, and red on the bottom. It has been the Russian flag since the late 17th century, apart from the Soviet period. History: The white, blue, and red tricolor first appears in the late 17th century, during the reign of Tsar Alexis I by some accounts, though other sources credit Tsar Peter the Great, who introduced it as a merchant flag to serve Russia's maritime trade. It was officially adopted for the first time in 1696. After several modifications it was set aside during the Soviet era in favor of the red banner with the hammer and sickle, and it returned as the flag of the Russian Federation on August 22, 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Various meanings have been attached to the colors over the years, including 'White for nobility, blue for honesty, and red for courage and love,' though none of these readings is official. ### The Flag of Rwanda URL: https://www.flagdb.com/rwanda Adopted: 2001-10-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwanda Last updated: 2026-02-21 The flag of Rwanda has three horizontal stripes, sky blue, yellow, and green, in descending order of width. The sky blue band covers half the flag and carries a golden sun with 24 rays in the top-right corner. Blue is read as peace and the sun as enlightenment, while yellow stands for economic development and green for hope and prosperity. History: Rwanda adopted its current flag on October 25, 2001, replacing the one in use since independence from Belgium in 1962. The old flag was a green, yellow, and red tricolor with a large black 'R' added to tell it apart from Guinea's. The redesign was part of a wider effort to rebuild the country and its sense of unity after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, and the new flag was chosen to point away from the divisions of the past. ### The Flag of Saint Barthélemy URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-barthelemy Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Barth%C3%A9lemy Last updated: 2026-02-21 Saint Barthélemy has no flag of its own. Officially it flies the French tricolore. What is used locally in its place is a white field bearing the island's coat of arms: a shield in three horizontal bands, three gold fleurs-de-lis on blue at the top for France, a white Maltese cross on red in the middle for the Order of Malta, and three gold crowns on blue at the bottom for Sweden, with a gold mural crown above, two pelicans as supporters, and the island's indigenous name Ouanalao on a scroll below. History: Saint Barthélemy is a French overseas collectivity in the Caribbean with an unusual set of detours in its past. France claimed it in 1648, handed it to the Knights of Malta from 1651 to 1656, ceded it to Sweden in 1784, and took it back in 1878. Each of those owners left a band on the shield. The arms themselves are modern: the island commissioned them from the heraldist Mireille Louis in 1977, after a French directive told municipalities to give themselves civic emblems. Flying them on a white field is an unofficial local practice rather than a decision anyone formally took. ### The Flag of Saint Helena URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-helena Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Saint Helena is a British Blue Ensign: a dark blue field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist and the shield of the island's coat of arms in the fly. The proportions are 1:2. The shield has two parts. The upper third is gold and carries a wirebird, the Saint Helena plover, the island's national bird and its only surviving endemic land bird. The lower two thirds show a three-masted sailing ship flying the cross of Saint George off a rocky coastline. The flag is flown on the island for official occasions and events, and it identifies Saint Helena proper within the British Overseas Territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. History: Saint Helena received a colonial badge in 1874, a coastal scene with a three-masted merchant ship, taken from the colony's seal and placed on the fly of a Blue Ensign in the standard pattern used across the British Empire. That arrangement lasted more than a century. In 1984 the island was granted a full coat of arms, designed at the College of Arms and registered by command of Queen Elizabeth II on January 30, 1984. The new shield kept the ship and coastline but added a gold panel with a wirebird above them, and a new flag bearing the shield was adopted on October 4, 1984. The government issued a corrected official rendering of the shield in 2019 after inconsistent versions of the bird had spread. ### The Flag of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-helena-ascension-and-tristan-da-cunha Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Helena,_Ascension_and_Tristan_da_Cunha Last updated: 2026-02-22 Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, and it has three flags rather than one, a separate design for each of the main islands. Each is a Blue Ensign, with the Union Jack in the canton and the island's own badge on the fly side. History: The three flags were adopted decades apart, each reflecting its island's own identity and administrative history. Saint Helena's was adopted on October 4, 1984, and carries the shield from the island's arms, with a wirebird, the national bird, a sailing ship, and the rocky coastline. Ascension Island's followed on May 11, 2013, its arms showing a green chevron for Green Mountain and three white terns over a wavy blue and white ground, held up by two green turtles. Tristan da Cunha's was adopted on October 20, 2002, and shows a Tristan longboat above a shield of four albatrosses, flanked by two rock lobsters, a reference to the island's fishing and seafaring. All three keep the link to the United Kingdom visible while giving each island an emblem of its own. ### The Flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-kitts-and-nevis Adopted: 1983-09-19 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Kitts_and_Nevis Last updated: 2026-02-22 The flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis has a black band edged in yellow running diagonally from the lower hoist corner to the upper fly corner, with two white five-pointed stars on the black. The triangle above the band is green and the one below it is red. Green stands for the fertile land, yellow for year-round sunshine, black for the African heritage of the people, and red for the struggle for freedom. The stars are hope and liberty. History: Saint Kitts and Nevis adopted its flag on September 19, 1983, the day it became independent from Britain. The design came out of a national competition, won by Edrice Lewis, a local student, and it replaced the British Blue Ensign flown through the colonial period. Nothing about it has changed since. ### The Flag of Saint Lucia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-lucia Adopted: 1967-03-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lucia Last updated: 2026-02-23 The flag of Saint Lucia has a light blue field for the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. At the center is a golden isosceles triangle for sunshine and prosperity, flanked by two white edges for the purity and aspiration of the people, and two black triangles for the African heritage of many of the island's citizens. The black triangles are edged in white and meet at their bases, forming the Pitons, the island's two volcanic cones. History: Saint Lucia adopted its flag on March 1, 1967, when the island became an associated state of the United Kingdom. The Saint Lucian artist Dunstan St Omer designed it, drawing on the island's landscape and on the people who live there. The original has been modified only slightly since, mostly in the size and placement of its symbols. ### The Flag of Saint Martin URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-martin Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivity_of_Saint_Martin Last updated: 2026-02-23 The flag used on the French side of Saint Martin in the Caribbean puts the collectivity's emblem on a white field. The emblem is a pelican in flight carrying flowers, with a map of the island on its eye, the border obelisk on its wing, and the sea, the salt pans, and a dry stone wall from the plantation era below. The French government does not recognize the flag, since the official flag there is the flag of France, but it is used locally as a marker of Saint Martin's own cultural and regional identity. History: Saint Martin is split between France and the Netherlands. The French side is Saint-Martin, the Dutch side Sint Maarten. The collectivity ran a competition for an emblem in 2010 and approved the winning design, by Claudio Arnell, on October 26 that year. Flown on a white field, it has never held official status, but it appears at cultural and public events across the French side. Islanders took it up because they wanted a symbol of their own rather than one handed down by a colonial power. ### The Flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-pierre-and-miquelon Adopted: 1982 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Pierre_and_Miquelon Last updated: 2026-02-24 The flag of Saint Pierre and Miquelon has a blue field with a yellow ship on it, said to be the Grande Hermine, the vessel that brought Jacques Cartier to the islands in 1536. A yellow scroll above the ship carries the name of the islands. A cross made of one blue and one red stripe quarters the flag, and each quarter holds another flag: the Basque flag at the upper hoist, the Breton flag at the upper fly, Normandy at the lower hoist, and France at the lower fly. Between them they account for the main groups of settlers and the colonial history of the islands. History: The flag is a recent creation, adopted unofficially in 1982. The islands have been under French control since 1763, apart from brief periods of British occupation, and the design draws on that history. The ship, the Grande Hermine, refers to Jacques Cartier's exploration and the French claims in the New World that followed it. The Basque, Breton, and Normandy flags stand for the groups of settlers who have historically inhabited the islands. The flag has no official status, but it is used widely in Saint Pierre and Miquelon and marks the islands out within the French Republic. ### The Flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saint-vincent-and-the-grenadines Adopted: 1985-10-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Vincent_and_the_Grenadines Last updated: 2026-02-24 The flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has three vertical bands of blue, gold, and green, with the gold band twice the width of the other two. Three green diamonds sit in the middle of the gold band, arranged in a V for the Grenadine Islands. Blue is for the sky and sea, gold for the warmth of the people and their bright future, and green for the vegetation of the islands. History: The flag was adopted on October 21, 1985, six years after independence from Britain on October 27, 1979. The design came out of a national competition and has been altered slightly since, mainly in the shades of blue and green, to keep it distinct from other flags. The diamonds were first arranged differently and were later moved into the V that now stands for the Grenadines. ### The Flag of Samoa URL: https://www.flagdb.com/samoa Adopted: 1949-02-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samoa Last updated: 2026-02-25 The flag of Samoa is a red field with a blue rectangle in the top left corner, and in that rectangle the Southern Cross picked out in white stars. Red stands for courage, blue for freedom, and the stars for guidance. History: The flag of Samoa was adopted on February 24, 1949, more than a decade before independence from New Zealand on January 1, 1962. Its design comes from the flag of the Mau movement, the main party campaigning for Samoan independence in the early 20th century. The current flag keeps the essential elements of the Mau flag and adds the Southern Cross, which places the country in the South Pacific. ### The Flag of San Marino URL: https://www.flagdb.com/san-marino Adopted: 2011-07-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Marino Last updated: 2026-02-25 The flag of San Marino has two horizontal bands of equal size, white above light blue, standing for peace and liberty. At the center is the national coat of arms: three towers on three peaks, each tower topped with a silver feather, against a blue background, with a crown above for sovereignty. A wreath of oak and laurel surrounds the arms, for stability and victory, and a scroll below reads 'LIBERTAS'. History: The flag of San Marino was adopted on April 6, 1862, which makes it one of the oldest designs still flying. White and blue have been the republic's colors since the 14th century, standing for the sky and clouds and, by extension, for liberty and peace. The coat of arms is of similar age. Its three towers are the three fortresses on Monte Titano, the mountain San Marino sits on, and the whole emblem is a statement of independence by a state that has kept its sovereignty since it was founded on September 3, 301 AD. ### The Flag of São Tomé and Príncipe URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sao-tome-and-principe Adopted: 1975-11-05 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A3o_Tom%C3%A9_and_Pr%C3%ADncipe Last updated: 2026-03-10 The flag of São Tomé and Príncipe has three horizontal bands of green (top and bottom) and yellow (middle), with the yellow band twice the width of each green one. A red triangle sits at the hoist, and two black stars are set in the yellow band. The colors come from the Pan-African palette and the stars stand for the country's two main islands. History: The flag was adopted on November 5, 1975, a few months after São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence from Portugal on July 12, 1975. The design follows the colors of the African freedom movement, and the two stars stand for the two main islands, São Tomé and Príncipe. Green is for the vegetation of the islands, yellow for cocoa, the country's main crop, and red for the struggle for independence. The stars are black for African heritage. ### The Flag of Saudi Arabia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/saudi-arabia Adopted: 1973-03-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia Last updated: 2026-02-26 The flag of Saudi Arabia is a green field with the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith, in white Arabic script ("There is no god but God; Muhammad is the Messenger of God") above a white horizontal sword. It is one of the few national flags in the world to carry script, and the green is the color traditionally associated with Islam. History: The flag goes back to the early 20th century. It was first adopted in 1932, when King Abdulaziz Al Saud unified the Kingdoms of Hejaz and Nejd, and has been modified only slightly since. The current version was standardized in 1973. The sword stands for the House of Saud, the ruling royal family, and the Shahada for the kingdom's Islamic identity and its governance under Sharia law. Green and the declaration of faith have belonged to many Islamic states and movements over the centuries, but the combination with the sword is Saudi Arabia's alone. ### The Flag of Scotland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/scotland Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland Last updated: 2026-04-17 The flag of Scotland, also known as the Saint Andrew's Cross or the Saltire, is a blue field with a white diagonal cross running out to the corners. The cross stands for Saint Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, who is said to have been martyred on a cross of that shape. The exact shade of blue has moved around over the centuries, from sky blue to navy, and currently sits at the lighter end. That simplicity is why it is one of the most recognizable national flags in the world. History: The origin of the Saltire dates back to the 9th century, making it one of the oldest national flags in history. According to legend, the flag's design was inspired by the circumstances surrounding the Battle of Athelstaneford in East Lothian, around 832 AD. During the battle, the Scottish King Óengus II led his forces against the Angles under Athelstan. Fearing defeat, Óengus II prayed for divine intervention, and a cloud formation resembling a white saltire against the blue sky appeared. Taking this as a heavenly sign, the Scots were emboldened and eventually emerged victorious. From that moment, the white saltire on a blue field was adopted as Scotland's symbol. The Parliament of Scotland designated it the national flag in 1385. What has changed since is mostly the shade of blue, which has drifted about considerably. The flag flies today over government buildings and historic landmarks, and among Scots abroad. ### The Flag of Senegal URL: https://www.flagdb.com/senegal Adopted: 1960-08-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senegal Last updated: 2026-02-26 The flag of Senegal is a tricolor of three vertical bands, green, yellow, and red, with a green five-pointed star in the middle of the yellow band. Green stands for Islam, yellow for wealth and progress, red for the sacrifices made for independence, and the star for hope and unity. History: The flag of Senegal was adopted on August 20, 1960, a few months after independence from France on April 4, 1960. Its design came from the flag of the Mali Federation, the short-lived union of Senegal and the Sudanese Republic (now Mali) that existed earlier the same year. When the federation broke up, Senegal kept the basic layout and altered it into its present form. The colors are the Pan-African ones, which places Senegal alongside its neighbors in the politics of African unity. ### The Flag of Serbia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/serbia Adopted: 2010 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbia Last updated: 2026-02-27 The flag of Serbia is a tricolor of three equal horizontal bands: red on top, blue in the middle, white at the bottom. The combination is common across Slavic nations. In the canton, the upper hoist-side corner, sits the Serbian coat of arms, with a double-headed eagle and a shield carrying a smaller red, blue, and white tricolor. History: The tricolor was first adopted in the 19th century, taking its cue from the Russian flag as a statement of Slavic kinship and of resistance to Ottoman rule. The colors are the traditional Pan-Slavic ones. Variations were used during the Kingdom of Serbia, and the design changed several times in the 20th century while Serbia was part of Yugoslavia. After Yugoslavia broke up in the 1990s, Serbia went back to the red, blue, and white tricolor and added the coat of arms. The current flag was adopted on August 11, 2004, and modified slightly in 2010 to adjust the size and position of the arms. ### The Flag of Sierra Leone URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sierra-leone Adopted: 1961-04-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone Last updated: 2026-02-28 The flag of Sierra Leone is a tricolor of three horizontal bands: light green, white, and light blue. Green stands for agriculture, the mountains, and natural resources; white for unity and justice; blue for the sea and the natural harbor at Freetown, the capital. History: The flag of Sierra Leone was adopted on April 27, 1961, replacing the British Blue Ensign as the country became independent of Britain. It came out of a national competition intended to produce something that spoke to the new state rather than the old colony. The design has not changed since. ### The Flag of Singapore URL: https://www.flagdb.com/singapore Adopted: 1959-12-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore Last updated: 2026-02-28 The national flag of Singapore is two horizontal halves, red above white, with a white crescent moon on the hoist side of the red half and five white stars arranged in a circle beside it. Red stands for universal brotherhood and the equality of man, white for everlasting purity and virtue. The crescent is a young nation on the rise, and the five stars are the country's ideals: democracy, peace, progress, justice, and equality. History: The flag of Singapore was adopted on December 3, 1959, when the territory became a self-governing state within the British Empire. Full independence followed on August 9, 1965, when Singapore was expelled from the Federation of Malaysia and became a republic. The design was meant to be unmistakably Singapore's own, distinct from the flags of neighboring states, and the crescent and stars were chosen to present the country as young and forward-looking. National Day, August 9, has been the flag's main occasion ever since. ### The Flag of Sint Maarten URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sint-maarten Adopted: 1985-06-13 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint_Maarten Last updated: 2026-03-01 The flag of Sint Maarten has two horizontal bands, red above blue, with a white triangle at the hoist carrying the island's coat of arms. The red, white, and blue come from the Dutch flag, marking the island's place in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, while the coat of arms marks out what is particular to Sint Maarten. History: The flag of Sint Maarten was adopted on June 13, 1985, after a public design competition that drew 115 entries. The winner was Roselle Richardson, a seventeen-year-old schoolgirl from the island. It came out of a period when the island was working out its own identity within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, of which it is a part. Sint Maarten sits in the Lesser Antilles and shares its island with the French collectivity of Saint-Martin. The flag has been central to public ceremonies and celebrations ever since. ### The Flag of Slovakia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/slovakia Adopted: 1992-09-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakia Last updated: 2026-03-01 The flag of Slovakia has three horizontal stripes, white, blue, and red from top to bottom, the traditional Pan-Slavic colors. Set toward the hoist is the national coat of arms: a white double cross on a blue background, standing on a mountain of three peaks. The aspect ratio is 2:3. History: The current flag of Slovakia was adopted on September 3, 1992, a few months before Czechoslovakia dissolved on January 1, 1993. It presents Slovakia as a sovereign state while keeping the Slavic colors. The coat of arms was included to separate the flag from those of Russia and Slovenia, which use the same colors with different emblems. The double cross is an old Slovak symbol standing for Christianity and for St. Cyril, the country's patron saint. The three peaks beneath it are the Tatra, Matra (now in Hungary), and Fatra ranges. ### The Flag of Slovenia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/slovenia Adopted: 1991-06-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia Last updated: 2026-03-02 The flag of Slovenia has three horizontal bands of white (top), blue, and red, with the national coat of arms at the hoist side. The coat of arms shows Mount Triglav, Slovenia's highest peak, in white against a blue background. Above the mountain are three six-pointed stars arranged in an inverted triangle, taken from the arms of the Counts of Celje. The wavy lines at the bottom stand for the sea and the rivers of Slovenia. History: Slovenia adopted the flag on June 27, 1991, two days after the country declared independence from Yugoslavia. The tricolor itself is much older. Slovene nationalists took up white, blue, and red during the 1848 Spring of Nations, part of the wider Pan-Slavic movement, and the same three colors, associated with freedom and independence, appear on several other Slavic flags. The coat of arms was added so that Slovenia's flag would not be mistaken for theirs. ### The Flag of Somalia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/somalia Adopted: 1960-10-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somalia Last updated: 2026-03-03 The flag of Somalia is a light blue field with a white five-pointed star in the center. The blue is read as the sky and the Indian Ocean, and the star as African freedom. Its five points stand for the regions where Somalis live: Djibouti, the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, the North Eastern Province in Kenya, and the former British and Italian Somaliland, which together make up Somalia. History: The flag was adopted on October 12, 1954, six years before independence. It was designed by Mohammed Awale Liban, who took the light blue from the flag of the United Nations, which was overseeing the territory's move towards self-rule. Somalia became independent on July 1, 1960, when the Trust Territory of Somaliland (formerly Italian Somaliland) and the State of Somaliland (formerly British Somaliland) joined together. ### The Flag of South Africa URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-africa Adopted: 1994-04-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa Last updated: 2026-03-04 The national flag of South Africa has a green Y-shaped band that starts at the hoist and splits into a horizontal V. Red and blue panels sit above and below it, a black triangle fills the hoist, and white and gold stripes separate the green from its neighbours. The convergence of the Y is usually read as the different parts of South African society coming together. History: South Africa adopted the flag on April 27, 1994, the day of its first democratic elections and the end of apartheid. It was meant to be an interim design, picked from entries to a national public competition, but it caught on fast enough that it was kept permanently. None of the colors have official meanings. They are usually read as standing for the country's ethnic groups and political parties, and for a history of colonialism, segregation, and the fight for equality. ### The Flag of South Georgia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-georgia Adopted: 1992 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Georgia_and_the_South_Sandwich_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-04 The flag of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a Blue Ensign with the Union Jack in the upper canton and the territory's coat of arms in the fly. The shield carries a golden lion in the upper half and a blue and white wave pattern below it for the ocean. A reindeer stands above the shield, and a fur seal and a macaroni penguin support it on either side. History: The flag was adopted on October 3, 1985. Before that the islands, as a British Overseas Territory, used the Union Jack for official purposes and had no flag of their own. The change was part of a wider effort to give Britain's overseas territories distinct symbols. The coat of arms at the center of the design was granted in 1985 and points to the islands' wildlife, their marine setting, and their long administrative tie to the United Kingdom. ### The Flag of South Korea URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-korea Adopted: 1883-01-27 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Korea Last updated: 2026-03-05 The flag of South Korea, the Taegukgi, has a white field standing for peace and purity. At its center is a red and blue Taeguk, a yin-yang symbol for the balance of opposing forces. Four black trigrams surround it, one for each of the four classical elements: heaven, fire, water, and earth. Taken together the design is about movement and harmony. History: The Taegukgi appeared in the late nineteenth century, while Korea was trying to hold its own against pressure from Japan and China, and was adopted on March 6, 1883, by King Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty. Japan banned public display of the flag during the occupation of 1910 to 1945, which turned it into a symbol of the independence movement. After the liberation of 1945 and the division of the peninsula, South Korea adopted it on October 15, 1949. It has been adjusted since, but only in its details. ### The Flag of South Sudan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-sudan Adopted: 2005-07-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sudan Last updated: 2026-03-05 The flag of South Sudan has three horizontal stripes of black, red, and green, separated by two narrow white ones. A blue triangle at the hoist carries a gold five-pointed star. The colors come from the flag flown by the South Sudanese liberation movement and cover the country's people, its landscape, and the war that produced it. History: South Sudan adopted the flag on July 9, 2011, the day it declared independence from Sudan. The design already existed: it was the flag of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Sudan People's Liberation Army during the Second Sudanese Civil War of 1983 to 2005, and it was proposed as a national flag in 2005, after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended the fighting. It was meant to cover both the cost of the war and what the country hoped to do afterwards: its natural resources, its wildlife, and the prospect of peace. ### The Flag of Spain URL: https://www.flagdb.com/spain Adopted: 1785-05-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain Last updated: 2026-03-06 The flag of Spain, often called "la Rojigualda" (the red and gold), is a horizontal triband of red, yellow, and red, with the yellow stripe twice the width of each red one. The national coat of arms sits on the yellow band, offset slightly towards the hoist. The arms are quartered and carry the emblems of the old Spanish kingdoms: Castile (a gold castle on red), León (a purple lion on white), Aragon (four red bars on gold), Navarre (gold chains on red), and Granada (a pomegranate). A royal crown sits above the shield, and two columns flank it for the Pillars of Hercules, wrapped in a red ribbon reading "Plus Ultra", Latin for "further beyond". History: The current colors date from 1785, when King Charles III adopted them as a naval ensign. The reasoning was practical. Spanish naval flags had been white with the royal arms, which at any distance looked much like the flags of several other European navies, and Charles wanted something that could be identified at sea. Red and yellow were reportedly taken from the colors of the Crown of Aragon. The design has changed with almost every change of regime. The Second Spanish Republic of 1931 to 1939 used red, yellow, and purple, the purple standing for Castile. After the Civil War, Franco restored the red and yellow and added the eagle of Saint John to the coat of arms. That version flew until 1981, when the present design was adopted following Spain's transition to democracy. ### The Flag of Sri Lanka URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sri-lanka Adopted: 1972-05-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka Last updated: 2026-03-06 The flag of Sri Lanka, also called the Lion Flag or Sinha Flag, shows a gold lion holding a kastane sword in its right fore-paw on a maroon field, with a gold bo leaf in each corner. A yellow border runs around it, and two vertical stripes of green and saffron sit at the hoist. The lion is for the courage of the Sinhalese, the four bo leaves for four Buddhist virtues, and the stripes for the country's other main religious communities. History: The lion flag is traditionally traced back to 486 BC and to Vijaya, the first king of Sri Lanka. The current version was adopted on May 22, 1972, when the country became a republic. Before that the flag carried only the lion and the bo leaves. The green and saffron stripes were recommended by a committee appointed in 1948, after independence from Britain, so that the flag would account for the Tamil (green) and Muslim (saffron) communities alongside the Sinhalese majority (maroon). ### The Flag of Sudan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sudan Adopted: 1970-05-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudan Last updated: 2026-03-07 The flag of Sudan is a horizontal tricolor of red, white, and black with a green triangle at the hoist. Red is for the struggle for independence and the lives it cost, white for peace, black for Sudan itself (the country is often called the 'Black Land', for its people and for the dark soil of the Nile), and green for Islam, agriculture, and the productivity of the land. History: Sudan adopted the current flag on May 20, 1970, after the 1969 coup that brought Gaafar Nimeiry to power. It replaced the flag used since independence from Anglo-Egyptian rule on January 1, 1956. The design follows the Arab Liberation Flag, also used by Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen, and the choice was a deliberate statement about where Sudan located itself: an African country aligning its symbols with the Arab world. ### The Flag of Suriname URL: https://www.flagdb.com/suriname Adopted: 1975-11-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suriname Last updated: 2026-03-07 The flag of Suriname has five horizontal bands: green at the top and bottom, narrow white bands inside them, and a wide red band through the middle. A yellow five-pointed star sits at the center of the red. Green is for the fertility of the land, white for justice and freedom, red for progress and love, and the star for unity among the country's ethnic groups. History: Suriname adopted its flag on November 25, 1975, the day it became independent of the Netherlands. As a colony and then a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands it had flown the Dutch tricolor. The new design came out of a national competition and was the work of Jacques Herman Pinas. ### The Flag of Svalbard and Jan Mayen URL: https://www.flagdb.com/svalbard-and-jan-mayen Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_and_Jan_Mayen Last updated: 2026-03-08 There is no separate flag for Svalbard and Jan Mayen. Both territories are part of the Kingdom of Norway rather than distinct entities, so both fly the Norwegian flag: a red field with a blue cross outlined in white, the cross shifted towards the hoist in the Nordic pattern. History: Svalbard and Jan Mayen have never had a flag of their own, because they are governed under Norwegian sovereignty and use the Norwegian flag. That flag was adopted on July 17, 1821, to a design by Fredrik Meltzer, a member of the Norwegian parliament, and its Nordic cross ties Norway to its neighbors. Svalbard came under Norwegian sovereignty in 1920 through the Svalbard Treaty. Jan Mayen, first sighted by Henry Hudson in 1607, was annexed in 1929. Norway represents both territories internationally. ### The Flag of Sweden URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sweden Adopted: 1906-06-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden Last updated: 2026-03-08 The flag of Sweden is a yellow Scandinavian cross on a blue field, with the arms of the cross running to all four edges and the upright set closer to the hoist, as on the other Nordic flags. Blue and yellow have stood for Sweden for centuries; both come from the national arms. History: The Swedish flag has roots in the 16th century, and the current design was adopted on June 22, 1906. It is thought to follow the Danish flag, a legacy of the Kalmar Union that once joined the Scandinavian kingdoms. The blue and yellow come from the Swedish coat of arms, which goes back to King Magnus III in the 13th century. The design has since influenced the flags of the other Nordic countries. ### The Flag of Switzerland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/switzerland Adopted: 1889-12-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland Last updated: 2026-03-09 The flag of Switzerland is a white cross on a red field. The four arms of the cross are equal in length and sit at the center of the flag, which is square rather than rectangular. The cross comes out of the country's Christian heritage. History: The Swiss cross dates to the late Middle Ages, around the 14th century, when it became a mark of Swiss soldiers and then of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The current flag was adopted on December 12, 1889. It follows Switzerland's historical coat of arms, and its square shape is unique among national flags. The symbolism is tied to Switzerland's history of independence and neutrality, and the flag is recognized well beyond the country's borders. ### The Flag of Syria URL: https://www.flagdb.com/syria Adopted: 2024-12-08 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syria Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Syria has three equal horizontal stripes, green on top, white in the middle and black at the bottom, with three red five-pointed stars in a row across the white stripe. It replaced the red, white and black flag with two green stars after the Assad government fell in December 2024. History: Syria's flag has changed repeatedly, usually because the government has. The design flown today is an old one. It was adopted under the 1930 constitution, raised in 1932, and was the flag Syria carried to independence in 1946. Syria set it aside in 1958 for the United Arab Republic flag, red, white and black with two green stars for Syria and Egypt, brought it back after seceding from the union in 1961, then dropped it again after the Ba'ath Party took power in 1963. The Ba'athist governments used red, white and black flags for the next six decades, with three green stars from 1963, the Hawk of Quraysh from 1972, and two green stars again from 1980. Opposition groups revived the green, white and black flag in 2011, and it became the state flag when the Assad government fell on 8 December 2024. ### The Flag of Taiwan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/taiwan Adopted: 1924-06-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwan Last updated: 2026-03-10 The flag of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a red field with a navy blue canton carrying a white sun of twelve rays. Red is for the blood of the revolutionaries who overthrew the Qing dynasty, blue for liberty and justice, and the white sun for democracy and equality. History: The flag comes out of the Chinese revolution against the Qing dynasty. Lu Hao-tung, a revolutionary and close associate of Sun Yat-sen, designed the sun emblem in 1895 for the Society for Regenerating China, a secret society formed to bring down the Qing and establish a republic. Sun Yat-sen added the red field in 1906. After the Wuchang Uprising of 1911 toppled the dynasty and produced the Republic of China, the new state used the five-colored flag as its national flag and this design as its naval ensign. That changed on December 17, 1928, when the Nationalist government, having completed the Northern Expedition, made it the national flag. It survived the Chinese Civil War and the split of 1949, when the People's Republic of China took the mainland and the ROC government moved to Taiwan. It has remained the ROC flag ever since, and is now associated primarily with Taiwan. ### The Flag of Tajikistan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tajikistan Adopted: 1992-11-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tajikistan Last updated: 2026-03-11 The flag of Tajikistan has three horizontal stripes of red, white and green, with the white stripe slightly wider than the other two. A gold crown topped by an arc of seven stars sits at the center of the white band. The colors and the emblem refer to the country's heritage, its natural wealth and its independence. History: Tajikistan adopted its flag on November 24, 1992, a year after declaring independence from the Soviet Union. The design borrows from both the country's earlier flags and its Soviet ones. The red stripe echoes the flag of the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic, while green and white have been used in various forms by Turkic and Persianate peoples across the region. The crown and stars were added to stand for the unity and identity of the Tajik people. Adopting the flag was one of the first steps in building a post-Soviet national identity. ### The Flag of Tanzania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tanzania Adopted: 1964-06-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzania Last updated: 2026-03-11 The flag of Tanzania is divided by a black band with yellow edges running diagonally from the lower hoist corner to the upper fly, leaving a green triangle above and a blue one below. Green is for the land, yellow for mineral wealth, black for the people, and blue for the Indian Ocean and the lakes. History: Tanzania adopted its flag on June 30, 1964, after Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form the United Republic of Tanzania. The design combines elements of the two flags it replaced. Tanganyika's flag, adopted in 1961, had a green and black band with yellow edges for the country's landscape and mineral wealth. Zanzibar's flag, adopted in December 1963, included a blue field for the Indian Ocean. Putting them together was the point. ### The Flag of Thailand URL: https://www.flagdb.com/thailand Adopted: 1917-09-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand Last updated: 2026-03-12 The flag of Thailand, the 'Traisanga' or 'Traisanga Chai', has five horizontal stripes in red, white and blue. A wide blue stripe runs through the center, flanked by narrower white stripes and then red ones at the top and bottom. Red stands for the land and its people, white for religion and blue for the monarchy. The flag is in a 2:3 ratio. History: Thailand adopted its current flag on September 28, 1917, during the reign of King Vajiravudh (Rama VI). Before that, Siam flew a plain red field, sometimes with a white elephant, a symbol of the monarchy, at the center. The change came after Vajiravudh saw the flag hanging upside down during a flood and found it unrecognizable. He ordered a symmetrical design that would read the same either way up. Adding the blue stripe also signalled solidarity with the Allies in the First World War. ### The Flag of the Åland Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/aland-islands Adopted: 1954 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%85land Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Åland Islands is a blue field with a yellow Nordic cross, its vertical arm shifted toward the hoist, charged with a narrower red cross so that the yellow shows as a border. The proportions are 17:26. Blue and yellow are the colors of Sweden and of Åland's provincial arms, and red comes from the coat of arms of Finland: a Swedish-speaking region, inside the Finnish state, drawn as one flag. It flies on public buildings and Åland-registered vessels, and across the islands on Åland's own flag day, the last Sunday of April. History: Åland's flag came out of a long argument about which country the islands belonged to. When Finland became independent in 1917, the Swedish-speaking Ålanders campaigned to join Sweden, and in 1921 the League of Nations settled the dispute: Åland would stay Finnish but with guaranteed autonomy, which took practical effect when the islands' first parliament convened in June 1922. An unofficial blue-yellow-blue tricolor flew from the 1920s until Finland banned it in 1935. The revised Autonomy Act that came into force in 1952 gave Åland the right to its own flag. The parliament's first choice, a Swedish flag with an added blue cross, was rejected by President J. K. Paasikivi as too close to Sweden's, so a red cross was set inside the yellow one instead. The compromise flag became law in 1954 and was first hoisted in Mariehamn on April 3 of that year. ### The Flag of the Bahamas URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bahamas Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bahamas Last updated: 2026-04-26 The flag of the Bahamas has three horizontal stripes, aquamarine over gold over aquamarine, with a black equilateral triangle at the hoist. The aquamarine stripes are the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the gold is the sun and the beaches, and the black triangle is the strength, vigor, and force of the Bahamian people. History: The Bahamas adopted its flag on July 10, 1973, the day it became independent of the United Kingdom. As a British colony it had flown the Blue Ensign with the Bahamian coat of arms. The current design came out of a national competition held in the run-up to independence, and it was chosen to reflect both the natural setting of the archipelago and the strength of the people who live in it. ### The Flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory URL: https://www.flagdb.com/british-indian-ocean-territory Adopted: 1990-11-08 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Indian_Ocean_Territory Last updated: 2026-05-12 The flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) has a navy blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, the standard mark of British sovereignty. In the fly, a palm tree and a crown sit on a white circle. The palm tree stands for the vegetation of the islands and the crown for the British monarchy. The design identifies the territory as a British overseas territory in the Indian Ocean. History: The flag of the British Indian Ocean Territory was adopted on November 8, 1990. The territory itself dates from 1965, when the Chagos Archipelago was separated from Mauritius for strategic reasons, and for its first 25 years it had no flag of its own and used the Union Jack for official purposes. The new flag gave the territory a distinct identity at a point when it was known mainly for hosting the US Naval Support Facility on Diego Garcia. Its three elements do the obvious work: the Union Jack for the link to the UK, the palm tree for the islands, the crown for government under the British Crown. ### The Flag of The British Virgin Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/british-virgin-islands Adopted: 1960-11-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Virgin_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-01 The flag of the British Virgin Islands has a deep blue field with the Union Jack in the upper hoist-side quadrant, marking the islands' ties to the United Kingdom. On the fly side is a coat of arms showing Saint Ursula on a green shield, holding a gold oil lamp and framed by eleven more, one for each thousand of the 11,000 virgins the islands are named after. A scroll beneath the shield carries the Latin motto 'Vigilate' (Be Vigilant). History: The flag of the British Virgin Islands was adopted on November 15, 1960. Before that, the islands used the British Blue Ensign with the Union Jack in the canton for shipping registration and other colonial business. The change was part of a wider move among British overseas territories to establish their own identities while keeping a visible link to the United Kingdom. The coat of arms at the heart of the design was granted the same year. Nothing significant about the flag has changed since. ### The Flag of the Caribbean Netherlands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/caribbean-netherlands Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Netherlands Last updated: 2026-05-13 The Caribbean Netherlands covers Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, three special municipalities of the Netherlands. There is no single flag for the grouping. Each island has its own, and the three designs are unrelated to one another. History: The flags of Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius were adopted at different times and under different circumstances, each island following its own path within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Bonaire's flag was adopted on December 11, 1981: a large blue triangle in the fly and a smaller yellow triangle at the hoist, separated by a white diagonal band that carries a black compass rose with a red six-pointed star at its center. Saba's followed on December 6, 1985, dividing the field into two red triangles above two blue ones, with a white diamond at the center holding a gold five-pointed star. Sint Eustatius was last, adopting its first flag in 2004 and raising it on Statia Day, November 16 of that year: four blue panels edged in red around a white diamond, with the island's outline in green and a gold star above it. The grouping itself, created when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved on October 10, 2010, has never adopted a flag. ### The Flag of The Cayman Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cayman-islands Adopted: 1958 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cayman_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-01 The flag of the Cayman Islands is a British Blue Ensign with the Union Jack in the canton and the coat of arms of the Cayman Islands in the fly. The coat of arms includes a shield, a crested helm, and the motto. On the shield, three green stars representing the islands are set in a blue and white wavy design, symbolizing the sea. Above the shield, there is a golden lion on a red field. The flag's design reflects the islands' British colonial history and its maritime culture. History: The Cayman Islands' flag was officially adopted on May 14, 1958, following the islands' designation as a separate Crown colony in 1959, previously being a dependency of Jamaica. Before this, the islands used the flag of Jamaica. The flag has been modified only slightly since, mostly in the coat of arms. The last adjustment came in 1999 and set out a detailed specification of the arms so they would be drawn consistently. The Union Jack marks the islands' political ties to Britain, and the maritime and tropical elements in the coat of arms mark everything else about them. ### The Flag of the Central African Republic URL: https://www.flagdb.com/central-african-republic Adopted: 1958-12-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_African_Republic Last updated: 2026-05-05 The flag of the Central African Republic features four horizontal stripes of blue, white, green, and yellow, with a vertical red stripe in the center, intersecting them all. In the upper left corner, on the blue stripe, there is a single yellow five-pointed star. This flag design symbolizes the country's location in Africa, its peace and dignity (white), natural resources and vegetation (green), and the unity of its people (red). The yellow star represents independence. History: The flag of the Central African Republic was officially adopted on December 1, 1958, shortly before the country gained independence from France on August 13, 1960. The flag's design was created by Barthélemy Boganda, the first Prime Minister of the autonomous territory of Oubangui-Chari, who believed that 'France and Africa must march together.' Thus, he designed the flag to symbolize the bond between France and Africa, incorporating the Pan-African colors (red, green, and yellow) along with the French Tricolore's colors (blue, white, and red). The result was a design about holding a diverse country together rather than about breaking with anyone. ### The Flag of The Cocos (Keeling) Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cocos-keeling-islands Adopted: 2004-04-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocos_(Keeling)_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-02 The flag of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, an Australian external territory in the Indian Ocean, has a green background for the islands' vegetation and a palm tree at the centre. A gold crescent moon sits to the left of the palm and the Southern Cross to the right. The crescent stands for the Islamic faith of most of the population, and the Southern Cross, common on flags of the region, places the territory in the southern hemisphere. History: The Cocos (Keeling) Islands adopted their flag on 6 April 2004, following a design competition held on the islands by a community that wanted something of its own. Europeans first sighted the islands in the 17th century, and Britain later annexed them. The Clunies-Ross family, granted the islands in perpetuity, ruled them until the Australian government bought the territory in 1978. The flag draws on both the Malay culture of the islanders and the colonial history that brought them there. ### The Flag of The Cook Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/cook-islands Adopted: 1979-08-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cook_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-02 The flag of the Cook Islands is a blue field with the Union Jack in the canton, which marks the islands' ties to New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In the fly, a circle of 15 white stars stands for the 15 islands. The blue is the Pacific Ocean around them. History: The Cook Islands adopted the current flag on August 4, 1979, replacing a version in use since 1973. The 1973 flag came shortly after the islands became self-governing in free association with New Zealand in 1965, and it also used the Union Jack and stars, though arranged differently. The 1979 revision put the stars in a circle and fixed the shade of blue, giving the islands a design of their own while keeping the link to New Zealand and the British Crown. ### The Flag of The Dominican Republic URL: https://www.flagdb.com/dominican-republic Adopted: 1862-11-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic Last updated: 2026-04-03 The flag of the Dominican Republic features a centered white cross that extends to the edges, dividing the flag into four rectangles: the top ones are blue (hoist side) and red, and the bottom ones are red (hoist side) and blue. At the center of the cross is the country's coat of arms. The blue symbolizes liberty, the white salvation, and the red the blood of heroes. History: The flag of the Dominican Republic was designed by Juan Pablo Duarte, one of the founding fathers of the country, and was first adopted in 1844 when the country gained independence from Haiti. It is the only flag of a non-monarchic nation to carry a heraldic coat of arms at its center. The current version, with the coat of arms, was officially adopted in 1908, though the basic design has been in use since the 19th century and has barely changed. ### The Flag of the DR Congo URL: https://www.flagdb.com/dr-congo Adopted: 2006-02-20 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo Last updated: 2026-05-19 The flag of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a sky blue field with a large yellow five-pointed star in the canton and a diagonal red stripe edged in narrow yellow stripes, running from the lower hoist side to the upper fly side. Blue stands for peace, yellow for the country's mineral wealth, and red for the blood shed for independence. The star stands for a bright future. History: The current flag was adopted on February 20, 2006, the latest in a long series used since independence from Belgium in 1960. Each change followed a political upheaval. The independence flag was close to the current one but had a smaller star and no red stripe. It was replaced in 1963, and several flags followed, usually tied to whoever held power. Mobutu Sese Seko's regime scrapped the design entirely for a flag with a leopard head. The 2006 return to a version of the older design was a deliberate reach back to the independence era. ### The Flag of The Falkland Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/falkland-islands Adopted: 1999-01-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-04 The flag of the Falkland Islands has a navy blue background, the British Union Jack in the upper hoist-side quadrant, and the Falkland Islands' coat of arms on the fly side. The coat of arms shows a white ram above a sailing ship, with the motto Desire the Right on a scroll below, standing for the islands' two defining industries: sheep farming and sea navigation. History: The current flag was adopted on January 25, 1999. Before that the islands used a similar flag introduced on September 29, 1948, which also carried the Union Jack and a version of the coat of arms. The arms have been modified over the years, the ram and the ship dating from the 1948 grant, and the 1999 change swapped the white disc behind them for a white outline and enlarged the whole device so it reads at a distance. Both flag and arms date the islands' status as a British Overseas Territory to the early 19th century, when the UK established control, and both combine British heritage with elements specific to the Falklands, notably the sheep farming industry that has long underpinned the economy. ### The Flag of the Faroe Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/faroe-islands Adopted: 1940-04-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faroe_Islands Last updated: 2026-05-24 The flag of the Faroe Islands, known as Merkið, has a red Nordic cross outlined in blue on a white field. The cross places the islands within the Nordic family of flags. The proportions are 8:11. History: The flag was designed in 1919 by Faroese students in Copenhagen and first flown in the Faroe Islands on June 22 of that year, in the village of Fámjin. For the next two decades it had no legal standing. The British government recognized it on April 25, 1940, during World War II, when Denmark was occupied by Germany and the Faroe Islands were under British protection; it was used to identify Faroese ships. Denmark followed with the Home Rule Act of 1948, which recognized the Merkið as the flag of the Faroe Islands on land as well as at sea. ### The Flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/french-southern-and-antarctic-lands Adopted: 2007 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Southern_and_Antarctic_Lands Last updated: 2026-05-27 The flag of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands (Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, TAAF) is a blue ensign with the French tricolore in the canton. In the fly, the four letters T, A, A and F are interlaced in white so that they read as an anchor, with five white five-pointed stars set around them. The stars are usually taken to stand for the territory's five districts, though the founding text does not say so. History: The French Southern and Antarctic Lands is an overseas territory of France, established on 6 August 1955. The current flag was made official by an order of 23 February 2007, which describes it as the territory's emblem rather than as a flag. It replaced an unofficial flag drawn up in 1958 by Xavier Richert, the first senior administrator, which carried three stars instead of five. The French national flag remains the flag of state, and the TAAF emblem sits alongside it. The design is built around naval imagery, which suits a territory reached only by ship. ### The Flag of the Gambia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/gambia Adopted: 1965-02-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gambia Last updated: 2026-05-28 The national flag of the Gambia has three horizontal stripes of red, blue, and green, separated by two thin white stripes. Red is the sun and the savannahs, blue the Gambia River that runs through the country, and green its forests and farmland. The white stripes stand for peace and unity. History: The flag was adopted on February 18, 1965, the day the Gambia gained independence from British colonial rule. It was designed by Louis Thomasi, who won a national flag design competition. The design draws on the physical character of the country, with the Gambia River at its center, and on the aspirations of its people for peace and progress. It replaced the British Blue Ensign defaced with the colonial badge. ### The Flag of the Isle of Man URL: https://www.flagdb.com/isle-of-man Adopted: 1932-12-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man Last updated: 2026-06-09 The flag of the Isle of Man carries a triskelion: three armoured legs with golden spurs, joined at the thigh in a star-like arrangement with the knees pointing outward, on a red field. The rotational layout gives the emblem a sense of motion, and it is the island's central symbol. History: The Isle of Man's flag draws on the island's Celtic and Norse past. The triskelion is far older than the flag itself, and although its origins are not fully clear, it is generally dated to the 13th century. The island was under Norse control from around 1079 until the 13th century, and the earliest known use of the Three Legs comes from that period, possibly as a symbol of the sun or of movement. The flag in its present form was adopted in 1932. The design has been modified slightly over the years, but the triskelion itself has stayed constant. ### The Flag of the Netherlands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/netherlands Adopted: 1937-02-19 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_the_Netherlands Last updated: 2026-02-05 The national flag of the Netherlands is three horizontal bands, red over white over blue. It is one of the oldest tricolors, and its colors have long been associated with liberty and revolt. History: The Dutch flag goes back to the revolt against Spanish rule in the late 16th century. The first version was orange, white, and blue, the orange for William of Orange, who led the revolt. Orange was later replaced with red, and historians still argue about why: some point to red dye holding up better at sea, others to a wish to match the colors of other maritime powers. The red, white, and blue horizontal tricolor became the national flag in 1796, was briefly replaced, and was reinstated in 1813. It has not changed since. Russia's tricolor came from it directly, and the French revolutionary tricolor is often traced back to it as well, though the Union Flag of the United Kingdom has nothing to do with it. ### The Flag of The Philippines URL: https://www.flagdb.com/philippines Adopted: 1898-06-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippines Last updated: 2026-03-23 The flag of the Philippines is a horizontal bicolor of royal blue and scarlet red with a white equilateral triangle at the hoist. Inside the triangle is a golden-yellow sun with eight primary rays, one for each of the first eight provinces to revolt against Spain, and a five-pointed star at each corner for Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. History: The flag was adopted on June 12, 1898, during the revolution against Spanish rule, and first flown at the declaration of independence in Kawit, Cavite. Emilio Aguinaldo, who became the first President of the Philippines, came up with the design the year before, while in exile in Hong Kong. It has been through several changes since, and it was banned outright under American sovereignty and again during the Japanese occupation in World War II. The Flag and Heraldic Code fixed the current specification, including the shade of blue as royal blue. One feature has no equivalent anywhere else: flown with the red band on top, the flag means the country is at war. ### The Flag of The Pitcairn Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/pitcairn-islands Adopted: 1984-04-02 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-31 The flag of the Pitcairn Islands is a Blue Ensign: the Union Jack in the canton and the islands' coat of arms in the fly. The shield shows the rocky island and the Bounty, the ship that brought the first settlers, along with a wheelbarrow, a slipway and an anchor. Above it sit a helmet and a green flowering miro, a Pacific plant. History: The flag was adopted on April 2, 1984. Its history is the islands' history: Pitcairn was settled in 1790 by mutineers from HMS Bounty and their Tahitian companions, and the flag holds both halves of that inheritance, the Union Jack for the British connection and the coat of arms for everything particular to the place. It arrived as part of a wider push in the late 20th century to give the British Overseas Territories flags of their own. ### The Flag of The Republic of the Congo URL: https://www.flagdb.com/republic-of-the-congo Adopted: 1959-09-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo Last updated: 2026-03-30 The flag of the Republic of the Congo consists of a diagonally divided field with a yellow band running from the lower hoist side to the upper fly side, dividing the flag into two triangles. The triangle on the hoist side is green, and the triangle on the fly side is red. The colors are pan-African, and in Congolese use they point to the country's natural resources and its struggle for independence. History: The flag of the Republic of the Congo was officially adopted on September 15, 1959, shortly before the country gained its independence from France on August 15, 1960. However, the flag was replaced in 1970 when the country was declared a People's Republic and adopted a new flag featuring a red field with the national emblem. The original flag was reinstated on June 10, 1991, following the collapse of the Marxist-Leninist government in favor of a move towards a democratic government system. This return to the original flag symbolized a return to the values and aspirations that marked the country's initial independence. ### The Flag of the Seychelles URL: https://www.flagdb.com/seychelles Adopted: 1996-06-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seychelles Last updated: 2026-02-27 The national flag of Seychelles has five oblique bands that fan out from the bottom left-hand corner to the edges of the flag: blue, yellow, red, white, and green in that order. The colors stand, respectively, for the country's forward thrust into the future, the sun, the people and their unity, social justice and harmony, and the land and the environment. History: The current flag of Seychelles was adopted on June 18, 1996, which makes it one of the newer national flags in the world. Seychelles gained independence from Britain on June 29, 1976, and used a different flag at first, with bands of blue, yellow, and red. After a coup d'état in 1977 came another flag, in the red, white, and green of the Seychelles People's United Party. The 1996 redesign was meant to catch up with the country's changed politics and to produce a symbol that worked for all Seychellois. The number of colors is also a nod to the mixed origins of the population, which includes African, European, Indian, and Chinese heritage. ### The Flag of the Solomon Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/solomon-islands Adopted: 1977-11-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-02 The flag of the Solomon Islands is divided diagonally by a thin yellow stripe, with a blue triangle above it and a green one below. Five white stars in the upper hoist are arranged in the shape of a diagonal cross, one for each of the main island groups. Blue is for the Pacific, green for the land, and yellow for the sun. History: The flag was adopted on 18 November 1977, some months before the Solomon Islands became independent of British rule on 7 July 1978. It came out of a competition held to find a design that could stand for the islands and their environment, and it replaced the British Blue Ensign flown during the years of the protectorate. The blue, the green and the rising sun were all read at the time as a new start for the country. ### The Flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/turks-and-caicos-islands Adopted: 1968-11-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turks_and_Caicos_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-16 The flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands is a Blue Ensign with the Union Jack in the canton and the territory's coat of arms on the fly. The shield carries a conch shell, a lobster, and a cactus, three things closely tied to the islands. The blue field is the Caribbean Sea. History: The flag of the Turks and Caicos Islands was adopted on November 7, 1968. Before that, as a British colony, the islands used the British Blue Ensign with the Union Jack at the hoist and a colonial badge on the fly. The new flag arrived alongside changes to the islands' government and administrative status. Its coat of arms had been granted in 1965 and points to the islands' economy and environment. Nothing has changed since 1968, and the flag carries both the colonial inheritance and a set of local symbols. ### The Flag of The United Arab Emirates URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-arab-emirates Adopted: 1971-12-02 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates Last updated: 2026-03-30 The flag of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) consists of a vertical red stripe at the hoist, next to three horizontal stripes of green, white, and black. These are the traditional Pan-Arab colors, and each carries its own meaning: green for fertility, white for neutrality and peace, black for oil wealth, and red for unity and for the blood of those who fought for the country. History: The flag of the United Arab Emirates was officially adopted on December 2, 1971, following the country's formation from the union of seven emirates. Its design was the result of a competition aimed at creating a flag that would represent the new federation. The winning design was submitted by a young Emirati, Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah. The flag's colors were inspired by the Arab Revolt and are intended to signify Arab unity. Over the years, the flag has come to symbolize the UAE's rise as a unified, prosperous, and significant player on the international stage. It is displayed prominently on national holidays, in public buildings, and at international forums where the UAE is represented. ### The Flag of The United Kingdom URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-kingdom Adopted: 1801 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom Last updated: 2026-03-29 The flag of the United Kingdom, known as the Union Jack or Union Flag, is a composite design made up of three different national symbols: the red cross of Saint George (for England), edged in white; the white saltire of Saint Andrew (for Scotland); and the red saltire of Saint Patrick (for Ireland). The flag features a blue field with these crosses superimposed on each other. History: The history of the Union Jack begins in 1606, following the union of the crowns of England and Scotland under King James VI of Scotland (who became James I of England). Initially, the flag combined only the English and Scottish flags. It wasn't until 1801, with the Act of Union 1800 which unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, that the red saltire of Saint Patrick was added to represent Ireland. The current design has remained the same since, even after the partition of Ireland in 1921 when the Irish Free State (now the Republic of Ireland) seceded from the United Kingdom. It continues to symbolize the unity of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom. ### The Flag of The United States URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-states Adopted: 1777-06-14 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States Last updated: 2026-03-25 The flag of the United States, also known as the Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, or the Star-Spangled Banner, consists of thirteen horizontal stripes of equal size, alternating red and white, starting and ending with red. In the canton, on a blue field, are fifty white stars representing the fifty states of the union. The stripes symbolize the original Thirteen Colonies that declared independence from Britain, and the stars stand for the states that make up the union. History: The history of the United States flag dates back to June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress passed a resolution establishing an official flag for the new nation, stating, 'That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.' Since then, the flag has undergone several changes, primarily to the stars in the canton. Each star added represented a new state joining the union. The current design, with fifty stars, was adopted on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. Americans have long read the flag as a symbol of freedom and democracy, and it is a fixture of civic life, patriotic display and government ceremony. ### The Flag of The United States Minor Outlying Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-states-minor-outlying-islands Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Minor_Outlying_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-25 The United States Minor Outlying Islands are a scattered group of Pacific and Caribbean territories run directly by the United States government. They have no flag of their own. The islands are mostly uninhabited and have no local administration to adopt one, so the flag flown over them is the flag of the United States. History: No flag has ever been designated for the United States Minor Outlying Islands as a group. The territories, which include Wake Island, Midway Atoll and Johnston Atoll among others, are administered directly by the federal government and therefore use the flag of the United States. A distinct flag for the islands is a conceptual idea rather than anything with a history of use or formal adoption. Their status and administration have changed over time, but none of them has a permanent population, which is much of the reason no collective emblem ever developed. ### The Flag of The United States Virgin Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-states-virgin-islands Adopted: 1921-05-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Virgin_Islands Last updated: 2026-03-24 The flag of the United States Virgin Islands is a simplified version of the United States coat of arms on a white ground. A bald eagle holds a laurel branch in one talon and three arrows in the other, with a shield of thirteen red and white stripes on its chest. The letters 'V' and 'I', in blue, flank the eagle on either side. History: The flag was officially adopted on May 17, 1921. The islands had been the Danish West Indies until 1917, when the United States bought them from Denmark for reasons tied to the Panama Canal and to the risk of German seizure during the First World War. The new flag was built around the American eagle, with the letters 'V' and 'I' beside it. The laurel branch stands for peace and the three arrows for the three main islands, Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix. It was adopted as part of a wider effort to give the islands an American identity after the transfer from Danish rule. ### The Flag of the Vatican City URL: https://www.flagdb.com/vatican-city Adopted: 1929-06-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_City Last updated: 2026-03-24 The flag of Vatican City, the enclave inside Rome, is one of only two square national flags in the world. It has two vertical bands, gold at the hoist and white at the fly, with the crossed keys of Saint Peter and the papal tiara in the white half. History: Vatican City adopted the flag on June 7, 1929, after the Lateran Treaty created the state and settled its sovereignty and neutrality. The two keys are understood as the keys to Heaven given by Jesus Christ to Saint Peter, the gold one for spiritual power and the silver one for worldly power, and the papal tiara above them stands for papal authority. Gold and white are the traditional papal colors and had been in use for centuries. The Papal States, which were far larger and covered much of central Italy, had used a range of flags and emblems before 1929; the new design was made for a much smaller state. ### The Flag of Timor-Leste URL: https://www.flagdb.com/timor-leste Adopted: 1975-11-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timor-Leste Last updated: 2026-03-12 The flag of Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, is a red field with two triangles at the hoist: a black isosceles triangle laid over a slightly longer yellow one, with a white five-pointed star inside the black. Red is the struggle for national liberation, black the obscurantism that has to be overcome, yellow the traces of colonialism, and the white star peace. History: Timor-Leste adopted its flag on 20 May 2002, the day it became independent from Indonesia. The design goes back to the flag of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN), first raised in 1975 when the country declared independence from Portugal. That independence lasted only months before an Indonesian invasion and occupation. The flag came back at the end of a UN-administered transition, carrying the same symbols it had in 1975. ### The Flag of Togo URL: https://www.flagdb.com/togo Adopted: 1960-04-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Togo Last updated: 2026-03-13 The national flag of Togo has five horizontal stripes alternating between green and yellow, with a red square in the top left corner holding a white five-pointed star. The green stripes stand for the country's agriculture, and the star for hope and independence. History: Togo adopted the flag on April 27, 1960, the day it became independent from France. It was designed by Paul Ahyi, a Togolese artist whose work shaped much of the country's visual identity. The colors are the Pan-African ones. Green is for agriculture and forests, yellow for mineral wealth and the hope of prosperity, and red for the blood shed in the fight for independence. The white star on the red square was meant as a light guiding the country toward peace and unity. ### The Flag of Tokelau URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tokelau Adopted: 2021-01-13 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokelau Last updated: 2026-03-13 The flag of Tokelau has a blue field for the ocean, with the four white stars of the Southern Cross near the hoist and a yellow Tokelauan canoe (paopao) sailing toward them. The canoe points to the place of fishing and navigation in Tokelauan life, and the Southern Cross to where the islands sit in the South Pacific. History: Tokelau adopted its flag on September 7, 2009, when the Governor-General of New Zealand presented it to the Ulu o Tokelau as the territory's first official flag. The design came at the end of a long consultation with the Tokelauan community, was settled by the General Fono, and was granted a royal licence in August 2009. It was raised across the three atolls that October. Before that Tokelau had no flag of its own and generally used the flag of New Zealand, the country it is a territory of. The design came out of a wider push for self-determination and cultural expression. It draws on Tokelauan culture and geography while acknowledging the links to New Zealand and to the rest of the Pacific. ### The Flag of Tonga URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tonga Adopted: 1875-11-04 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonga Last updated: 2026-03-14 The flag of Tonga is a red field with a white canton charged with a red couped cross, usually in 1:2 proportions. The cross stands for the Christian faith, the white for purity, and the red for the blood of Christ. History: Tonga adopted its flag on November 4, 1875, which makes it one of the oldest national flags still in continuous use. The design was proposed by King George Tupou I, who oversaw much of Tonga's modernization, including its adoption of Christianity. He wanted a flag that showed the country's Christian faith and did not resemble the flags of other nations. It has barely changed since. The 1875 adoption came alongside the drafting of Tonga's first constitution, when the kingdom set out its sovereignty and its identity in law. ### The Flag of Trinidad and Tobago URL: https://www.flagdb.com/trinidad-and-tobago Adopted: 1962-08-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_and_Tobago Last updated: 2026-03-14 The flag of Trinidad and Tobago is a red field crossed by a white-edged black diagonal band running from the upper hoist to the lower fly. Red is for the sun, the land, and the warmth of the people, black for the wealth of the land and the dedication of those who work it, and the white bands for the sea between the two islands. History: Trinidad and Tobago adopted its flag on August 31, 1962, the day the country became independent from the United Kingdom. The design won a national competition held in the run-up to independence and came from Carlisle Chang, a Trinidadian artist and designer. It was one of a set of new national symbols chosen to stand for the country's identity and heritage rather than its colonial past, and it has represented Trinidad and Tobago ever since. ### The Flag of Tunisia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tunisia Adopted: 1831 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia Last updated: 2026-03-15 The national flag of Tunisia is a red field with a white circle in the middle. Inside the circle sits a red crescent around a red five-pointed star. The crescent and star are Islamic symbols, set in the red and white long used by Tunisia. History: Tunisia adopted its flag on October 20, 1827, during the reign of Al-Husayn II ibn Mahmud, the Bey of Tunis. The design took its cue from the naval ensign of the Ottoman Empire, which controlled Tunisia at the time, with local elements added to set it apart. It has since been modified only in small ways, and it was kept as the national flag when Tunisia became independent from France on March 20, 1956. The red and white are usually read as the blood of martyrs and peace, and the crescent and star as symbols of Islam and of the country's Muslim majority. ### The Flag of Turkey URL: https://www.flagdb.com/turkey Adopted: 1844 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkey Last updated: 2026-03-15 The flag of Turkey, called the Türk bayrağı or Al bayrak (the red flag), is a red field with a white star and crescent. The red is read as the blood of martyrs, and the star and crescent are old Islamic symbols matching the country's Muslim majority. History: The flag's origins lie in the late Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Turkey adopted it, with slight modifications, on June 5, 1936. The star and crescent predate the Ottomans but became closely associated with the empire and then with its successor state, which is why the flag reads as both a continuation and a break. It has stood for national unity, independence, and the secular republic ever since. ### The Flag of Turkmenistan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/turkmenistan Adopted: 1992-02-19 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan Last updated: 2026-03-16 The flag of Turkmenistan is a green field with a vertical red stripe near the hoist, carrying five traditional carpet guls stacked above two crossed olive branches. To the right of the stripe are a white crescent moon and five white five-pointed stars. Green stands for Islam, the guls for the country's main tribes, the moon for hope, and the stars for the five provinces. History: Turkmenistan adopted its flag on February 19, 1992, a few months after declaring independence from the Soviet Union on October 27, 1991. It is the only national flag that puts a piece of textile design at its center: the carpet guls come straight from Turkmen weaving. The flag was modified in 1997, when the guls were changed to stand for the five major tribes, Teke, Yomut, Saryk, Chowdur, and Arsary, and two olive branches were added to mark the United Nations recognition of Turkmenistan's permanent neutrality. A further revision on January 24, 2001 lightened the green and changed the proportions from 1:2 to 2:3, which is the flag flown now. ### The Flag of Tuvalu URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tuvalu Adopted: 1997-04-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu Last updated: 2026-03-17 The flag of Tuvalu is a light blue field with the Union Jack in the canton and nine stars in the fly half. The stars stand for the nine islands that make up the country, and they are laid out to match the geography of the chain. The light blue is the Pacific. History: Tuvalu adopted its flag when it became independent from the United Kingdom on October 1, 1978. The Union Jack marked the country's history as a British protectorate, and the stars stood for the islands. In 1995 the flag was replaced with a design that dropped the Union Jack in favor of Tuvaluan symbols and a stronger claim to a separate national identity. That version lasted two years. A change of government and public feeling in favor of the Commonwealth connection brought the original flag back in 1997, and it is the one in use today. ### The Flag of Uganda URL: https://www.flagdb.com/uganda Adopted: 1962-10-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uganda Last updated: 2026-03-17 The flag of Uganda has six horizontal stripes of black, yellow, and red, repeated twice, starting with black at the top. A white circle in the center holds a grey crowned crane facing the flagpole, standing on one leg. The crane is Uganda's national bird. History: Uganda adopted its flag on October 9, 1962, the day it became independent from British rule. It was designed by Grace Ibingira of the Uganda People's Congress. Black stands for the African people, yellow for the sunshine, and red for the brotherhood and the blood that ties Ugandans together. The grey crowned crane in the middle also appears on the national coat of arms. It was chosen for its gentle nature, and it had been used as a military badge under British rule. The flag replaced the British Blue Ensign that Uganda had flown as a protectorate. ### The Flag of Ukraine URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ukraine Adopted: 1992-01-28 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine Last updated: 2026-03-18 The flag of Ukraine is two horizontal bands of equal size, blue above yellow. The colors are usually read as the sky over the country's wheat fields. History: Blue and yellow have stood for Ukraine since the 12th century and the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia. The modern flag was first used as a symbol of independence during the Ukrainian War of Independence of 1917 to 1921. Soviet rule then banned it. Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union on August 24, 1991, and the blue and yellow flag was raised over the parliament building in Kyiv on September 4, 1991. Parliament adopted it as the national flag by resolution on January 28, 1992. ### The Flag of Uruguay URL: https://www.flagdb.com/uruguay Adopted: 1830-07-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay Last updated: 2026-03-18 The flag of Uruguay has nine horizontal stripes of equal width, alternating white and blue, with a white canton at the hoist carrying the golden Sun of May. The nine stripes are the nine departments Uruguay had when the flag was adopted. History: Uruguay first adopted a national flag by a law of December 1828, after independence from Brazil and Argentina, and Joaquín Suárez is credited with the design. That flag carried nine light blue stripes on white, one for each department, which came to 19 bands in all. A second law of July 11, 1830 cut the design back to nine bands, four blue and five white, and that is the flag in use today. The Sun of May refers to the May Revolution of 1810, which began the break with Spain in the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, the state from which Uruguay and several of its neighbors eventually emerged, and the sun itself is associated with the Inca sun god Inti. The design carries both that shared revolutionary inheritance and Uruguay's own separation from the countries on either side of it. ### The Flag of Uzbekistan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/uzbekistan Adopted: 1991-11-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbekistan Last updated: 2026-03-19 The flag of Uzbekistan has three horizontal stripes, blue, white and green, divided by two thin red lines. A white crescent moon and twelve white stars sit at the hoist end of the blue stripe. The design brings together Islamic imagery, the country's water and farmland, and a stated commitment to peace. History: Uzbekistan adopted the flag on November 18, 1991, after declaring independence from the Soviet Union on August 31, 1991. The declaration took effect the following day, which is why the country celebrates Independence Day on September 1. The design came out of a national competition. Blue is for the sky and for water, both of which carry weight in Uzbek culture and in Islamic tradition. White is for peace and purity, green for nature and fertility, and the thin red lines for the life force in every living thing. The crescent is the traditional symbol of Islam and here also marks the rebirth of the country as an independent state. The twelve stars have been read as the historical regions of Uzbekistan and as the months of the calendar. ### The Flag of Vanuatu URL: https://www.flagdb.com/vanuatu Adopted: 1980-02-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanuatu Last updated: 2026-03-19 The flag of Vanuatu is split by a horizontal Y shape that echoes the layout of the archipelago. A black triangle sits at the hoist, carrying a yellow boar's tusk curled around two crossed namele leaves, and the arms of the Y separate a red field above from a green one below. The colors are black, green, red and yellow. History: Vanuatu adopted the flag on February 18, 1980, and first flew it as the flag of a sovereign state on July 30 of that year, when joint British and French rule ended. It came out of a national flag competition. The colors were drawn from the political parties active at independence, green for the Nagriamel movement, black for the Melanesian people and red for the struggle for freedom, while yellow stands for Christianity and peace. The boar's tusk is a traditional symbol of prosperity and the namele leaves stand for peace. The flag has not changed since. ### The Flag of Venezuela URL: https://www.flagdb.com/venezuela Adopted: 2007-03-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuela Last updated: 2026-03-20 The flag of Venezuela has three horizontal stripes, yellow, blue and red from top to bottom, with an arc of eight white stars across the blue. The official state version adds the coat of arms in the upper hoist corner of the yellow stripe. Yellow is read as the country's wealth, blue as the sea that separates Venezuela from Spain, and red as the blood shed in the fight for independence. The stars are the provinces that backed the revolution. History: The Venezuelan flag goes back to the independence movements that swept South America in the early 19th century. Francisco de Miranda, one of the forerunners of Venezuelan independence, first raised it on March 12, 1806, on the corvette Leander. The design changed repeatedly over the following years, and a version with the three colors and seven stars, one for each of the original provinces that declared independence, was adopted on July 5, 1811. The arrangement and number of stars shifted again as the country's politics and territorial divisions changed. The last change came in 2006, when an eighth star was added to carry out Simon Bolivar's decree of 1817 honoring the province of Guayana. ### The Flag of Vietnam URL: https://www.flagdb.com/vietnam Adopted: 1955-11-30 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam Last updated: 2026-03-20 The national flag of Vietnam, the 'red flag with a gold star' (cờ đỏ sao vàng), is a large golden five-pointed star centered on crimson red, usually in a 2:3 ratio. The red stands for bloodshed and revolutionary struggle. The five points of the star stand for the workers, peasants, intellectuals, youth and soldiers who were to build socialism. History: North Vietnam adopted the flag on November 30, 1955, and it became the flag of the whole country when North and South were reunified on July 2, 1976. The design is attributed to Nguyễn Hữu Tiến, a revolutionary involved in the 1940 uprising against French colonial rule, though its roots run back to 19th-century resistance to French domination. Through the Vietnam War it was the flag of North Vietnam, while the Viet Cong in the south flew a version with the lower half in blue, and after Saigon fell in April 1975 it became the flag of the reunified country the following year. ### The Flag of Wales URL: https://www.flagdb.com/wales Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wales Last updated: 2026-04-17 The flag of Wales, known as Y Ddraig Goch (The Red Dragon), features a red dragon passant (walking with one foreleg raised) on a field of green and white horizontal stripes. There is no standardised aspect ratio, though the flag is usually seen in 3:5 or 2:3. The green and white stripes are of equal width and come from the House of Tudor, the Welsh dynasty that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. The red dragon is far older, and runs through Welsh mythology and history as a figure of strength and national pride. History: The origins of the red dragon as a symbol of Wales trace back to ancient times, with its earliest recorded appearance on the battle flags of Welsh kings in the 5th century. The legend of the dragon extends into Arthurian legend and has been a symbol of Welsh resistance and endurance throughout history. The green and white stripes were added in the 15th century, attributed to the Tudor family's Welsh origins, particularly Henry VII, who carried a flag emblazoned with the red dragon of Cadwaladr, King of Gwynedd, alongside the Tudor colors at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485. This victory ended the Wars of the Roses and established the Tudor dynasty on the English throne. The flag as it is known today was officially recognized in 1959, which settled the red dragon's status as the national emblem of Wales. Before that it had been used informally for centuries, in a range of designs built around the dragon. Wales is the only nation of the United Kingdom whose emblem sits entirely outside the Union Jack. ### The Flag of Wallis and Futuna URL: https://www.flagdb.com/wallis-and-futuna Adopted: 1887 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_and_Futuna Last updated: 2026-03-21 The flag used locally in Wallis and Futuna is a red field with a white square set towards the fly, and inside that square a red saltire, so that the white reads as four triangles pointing inwards. The French tricolore, outlined in white, sits in the canton. The official flag of the territory is the French tricolore on its own. History: The flag came into unofficial use in 1985, developed from earlier variants used from about 1976, and it derives from the flag of the kingdom of Uvea on Wallis. Wallisian flag design goes back to 1842, when the Marist missionary Father Bataillon drew up a flag bearing a white cross pattée, and French elements were worked into it over the following century. The four white triangles are usually explained as the three customary kings of Uvea, Alo and Sigave together with the senior administrator sent from Paris. The three kingdoms have their own flags, and it is those, not this one, that fly officially inside the territory alongside the tricolore. ### The Flag of Western Sahara URL: https://www.flagdb.com/western-sahara Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Sahara Last updated: 2026-03-21 The flag of Western Sahara is a horizontal tricolor of black, white and green with a red triangle at the hoist. A red star and crescent sit at its center. It is the flag of the Sahrawi independence movement and of the state it declared. History: The flag was introduced on February 27, 1976, after Spanish forces withdrew, when the Polisario Front proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Its colors are the Pan-Arab colors and its emblems are Islamic, matching the religion of most of the population. Adopting it was both a political act and a statement of resistance to the Moroccan annexation that began soon after Spain left. Recognition of the SADR remains partial, but the flag is central to the Sahrawi claim to sovereignty. ### The Flag of Yemen URL: https://www.flagdb.com/yemen Adopted: 1990-05-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yemen Last updated: 2026-03-22 The flag of Yemen is three horizontal stripes of equal size, red at the top, then white, then black. These are the Pan-Arab colors. Red is the blood shed for independence, white a bright future and black the dark past. History: Yemen adopted the flag on May 22, 1990, the day North and South Yemen united. The two earlier flags used the same colors in different arrangements. North Yemen had flown a flag much like the current one since 1962, with a green star in the center. South Yemen's flag, used from 1967 until unification, added a blue triangle with a red star to the horizontal stripes. Dropping every emblem and keeping only the three stripes was meant to signal that neither side had absorbed the other. ### The Flag of Zambia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/zambia Adopted: 1964-10-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zambia Last updated: 2026-03-22 The flag of Zambia is a green field with an orange eagle in flight above a block of three vertical stripes, colored red, black, and orange from left to right. The green stands for the country's vegetation and natural resources, and the eagle for freedom and the ability to rise above the nation's problems. Red is for the struggle for freedom, black for the people of Zambia, and orange for the country's mineral wealth. History: Zambia adopted the flag at independence from British colonial rule on October 24, 1964. The design came out of a national flag competition held in the run-up to independence, and it has changed little since. The one revision came in 1996, when the shade of green was adjusted. The elements and their meanings stayed as they were. ### The Flag of Zimbabwe URL: https://www.flagdb.com/zimbabwe Adopted: 1980-04-18 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimbabwe Last updated: 2026-03-23 The flag of Zimbabwe has seven horizontal stripes in green, yellow, red, black, red, yellow, and green, with a white triangle at the hoist holding a red five-pointed star and the Zimbabwe Bird. Green is for agriculture, yellow for mineral wealth, red for the blood shed for independence, black for the black majority, and white for peace. The star stands for the nation's aspirations, and the bird is a national emblem. History: Zimbabwe adopted the flag on April 18, 1980, the day it became independent of the United Kingdom. The country had been Rhodesia until then, and its flag reflected that colonial status. The new design was meant to speak to the struggle for independence and to what the country wanted next. The Zimbabwe Bird was the piece that mattered most, connecting the new state to the ancient Kingdom of Zimbabwe. ### The Maldives URL: https://www.flagdb.com/maldives Adopted: 1965-07-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maldives Last updated: 2026-04-20 The flag of Maldives consists of a red field with a large green rectangle in the center, inside of which sits a white crescent moon. The red field symbolizes the blood of those who fought for the country's independence, the green rectangle represents peace and prosperity, and the white crescent moon is a symbol of Islam, the state religion. History: The flag of Maldives has undergone several changes throughout its history, reflecting the country's political and social evolution. The earliest known flag, dating back to the 16th century, was plain red. In the 17th century, a black and white striped flag with a crescent moon was introduced. The current flag was officially adopted on July 25, 1965, shortly after Maldives gained independence from the British on July 26, 1965. The introduction of the green rectangle and white crescent on a red field was meant to represent a new era for the nation, emphasizing peace, prosperity, and Islamic faith. ### The Marshall Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/marshall-islands Adopted: 1979-05-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-20 The flag of the Marshall Islands has a deep blue field crossed by two diagonal stripes, one orange and one white, that stand for the equator. A white star with 24 points sits in the upper hoist corner, one point for each municipality. The blue is the Pacific Ocean, the orange stripe stands for courage, and the white stripe for peace and purity. History: The flag was adopted on May 1, 1979, after the constitutional convention that moved the Marshall Islands toward independence from the United States. The 24-pointed star marks the country's status as a sovereign state, with one point for each of its municipalities, and the diagonal bands place the islands geographically, just north of the equator in the Pacific. ### The Northern Mariana Islands URL: https://www.flagdb.com/northern-mariana-islands Adopted: 1985-07-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands Last updated: 2026-04-19 The flag of the Northern Mariana Islands is a blue field with a white star in the center, set on a gray latte stone, a Chamorro symbol, and ringed by a wreath of two native flowers. Blue is the Pacific Ocean, the star is the Commonwealth itself, the latte stone is Chamorro heritage, and the wreath of mwar (Marianas ginger) and plumeria is the natural world of the Marianas. History: The flag of the Northern Mariana Islands was adopted on July 4, 1976, after a design contest. The islands had just become a Commonwealth in political union with the United States and wanted a symbol of their own, one that drew on local culture rather than on American heraldry. The design leans on the latte stone, the traditional Chamorro pillar that once carried the foundations of buildings and now stands for Chamorro identity. Adopting a flag was one step in a longer move toward self-government. ## US States ### The Flag of Alabama URL: https://www.flagdb.com/alabama Adopted: 1895-02-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alabama Last updated: 2026-08-06 Alabama's flag is a crimson saltire, the diagonal cross of St. Andrew, on a white field. The 1895 statute requires only that the bars of the cross be at least six inches broad and run corner to corner; it says nothing about proportions, which fueled a century of argument over whether the flag should be square or rectangular. A 1987 attorney general's opinion settled on rectangular. The flag flies over the state capitol in Montgomery and on public buildings across Alabama, and its two-color design is one of the simplest of any US state. History: The Alabama legislature adopted the flag on February 16, 1895, through Act 383, on a bill introduced by Montgomery representative John W. A. Sanford Jr. Before 1895 the state had no flag of its own apart from a short-lived secession banner made in 1861, which showed the Goddess of Liberty on one side and a cotton plant with a rattlesnake on the other. Sanford's father had commanded a battalion of Hilliard's Legion in the Confederate army, and some writers have argued the crimson cross echoes a Confederate battle flag carried by his father's men, though historians at the state archives say the documentary record never confirms it. The design has not changed since 1895. ### The Flag of Alaska URL: https://www.flagdb.com/alaska Adopted: 1927-07-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska Last updated: 2026-08-06 Alaska's flag is eight gold stars on a dark blue field: seven forming the Big Dipper, the most visible part of the constellation Ursa Major, and an eighth, larger star in the upper fly corner for Polaris, the North Star. The blue is the color of the Alaska sky and of the forget-me-not, the state flower. The design came from a 1927 territorial contest won by Benny Benson, a thirteen-year-old Alaska Native schoolboy, and it was kept unchanged when Alaska became a state in 1959. It flies on state buildings and is the subject of the official state song. History: In 1927 the Alaska Department of the American Legion ran a territory-wide flag design contest for schoolchildren in grades seven through twelve, and 142 designs went forward to the final judging in Juneau. The unanimous winner was Benny Benson, a seventh grader living at the Jesse Lee Home for children in Seward, who drew the Big Dipper and the North Star in gold on blue. The territorial legislature adopted the design on May 2, 1927, and the flag was first flown on July 9, 1927. Benson received an engraved gold watch and a $1,000 scholarship. When Alaska entered the Union on January 3, 1959, the territorial flag became the state flag without alteration. ### The Flag of Arizona URL: https://www.flagdb.com/arizona Adopted: 1917-01-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona Last updated: 2026-08-06 Arizona's flag splits into two halves. The lower half is a solid field of blue. The upper half holds thirteen alternating rays of red and gold, six gold and seven red, spreading from the center line like a setting desert sun. A large copper-colored five-pointed star sits at the center, the only copper star on any US flag, for the state that has long led the country in copper production. The rays count the thirteen original colonies and use the red and gold of the Spanish flags carried into the region in the 1500s. Proportions are 2:3. History: The design began with the Arizona National Guard rifle team, which arrived at the national matches at Camp Perry, Ohio around 1910 as the only team with no emblem to fly. Team captain Colonel Charles W. Harris worked up the rays-and-star design, with contributions attributed to several others including Carl Hayden, later Arizona's first congressman, whose wife Nan sewed an early flag. The Third Arizona Legislature adopted it as the state flag in February 1917, five years after statehood. Governor Thomas Campbell declined to sign the bill and never publicly said why; it became law without his signature. The design has not changed since. ### The Flag of Arkansas URL: https://www.flagdb.com/arkansas Adopted: 1913-02-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkansas Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Arkansas is a red field with a large white diamond bordered in blue. Twenty-five white stars run around the blue border, for Arkansas's admission as the 25th state. Inside the diamond, the word "ARKANSAS" appears in blue with four blue stars around it: one above the name, added in 1923 for the Confederacy, and three below in an inverted triangle for Spain, France, and the United States, the three nations whose flags flew over Arkansas before statehood. The diamond marks Arkansas as the only US state where diamonds have been mined. History: In 1912 the Pine Bluff chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution wanted a state flag to present to the new battleship USS Arkansas and found the state had none, so it ran a design contest that drew some 65 entries. The winner was Willie Kavanaugh Hocker, a schoolteacher from Wabbaseka and a chapter member. Her design had a red field, a white diamond in a star-studded blue border, and three blue stars; the selection committee asked her to add the state's name. The General Assembly adopted the flag on February 26, 1913. In 1923 legislators added a fourth star for the Confederacy, and in 1924 they moved that star above the name, where it remains. A 2019 bill to redesignate the star failed in committee. ### The Flag of California URL: https://www.flagdb.com/california Adopted: 1911-02-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California Last updated: 2026-08-06 California's flag is a white field with a red stripe along the bottom, a red five-pointed star in the upper hoist, a walking grizzly bear on a patch of green grass at the center, and the words "CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC" beneath the bear. Proportions are 2:3. The bear stands for strength, the star for the short-lived independence claimed in 1846, and the red stripe for courage. The 1953 specifications fix the bear's pose and colors, modeled on Monarch, the last California grizzly held in captivity. The species itself is extinct in the state. History: The design descends from the Bear Flag raised at Sonoma on June 14, 1846, when American settlers rebelled against Mexican rule and declared a California Republic. William L. Todd, a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, painted the original with a star, a grizzly, and the words "California Republic." The republic lasted less than a month before the US flag went up, and the original flag burned in the fires that followed the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. California made the Bear Flag its official state flag on February 3, 1911, under Governor Hiram Johnson, and a 1953 law signed by Governor Earl Warren standardized the design, with artwork by Donald Graeme Kelley based on the bear Monarch. ### The Flag of Colorado URL: https://www.flagdb.com/colorado Adopted: 1964-03-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado Last updated: 2026-08-06 Colorado's flag has three horizontal stripes, blue, white, and blue, with a large red letter C toward the hoist enclosing a golden disc. Proportions are 2:3. By the designer's account, the blue is the sky, the white is the snow on the Rockies, the red is the state's reddish earth (Colorado is Spanish for "colored red"), and the gold is sunshine, with nods to the state's gold and silver mining and to the blue and white of the columbine, the state flower. Adopted in 1911, the flag had its colors standardized in 1929 and its proportions fixed in 1964. History: Andrew Carlisle Carson designed the flag, and Colorado adopted it on June 5, 1911, replacing an unpopular 1907 banner that had put the state coat of arms on a blue field. The 1911 law was vague about the size and placement of the C, so early flags varied noticeably from maker to maker. The General Assembly tightened the specification twice: a 1929 act declared the red and blue to be the same colors as the United States flag, and a 1964 act fixed the remaining dimensions, including making the diameter of the gold disc equal to the width of the center stripe. The design has otherwise been unchanged since 1911. ### The Flag of Connecticut URL: https://www.flagdb.com/connecticut Adopted: 1897-09-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut Last updated: 2026-08-06 Connecticut's flag is an azure blue field carrying a white baroque shield with three grapevines, each bearing three bunches of purple grapes. Below the shield, a white ribbon carries the state motto, "Qui Transtulit Sustinet": he who transplanted still sustains. The statute gives the flag unusual dimensions, five feet six inches by four feet four inches, a squarish shape few manufacturers follow exactly. The grapevines, transplants bearing fruit in new soil, are the colonists themselves, an image the state has carried on its seals since 1639. The flag was officially adopted in 1897. History: The flag's imagery is centuries older than the flag. George Fenwick's seal for Saybrook Colony, made around 1639, showed fifteen grapevines and the motto "Sustinet qui transtulit"; the seal passed to Connecticut Colony in 1644, and in 1711 the colony cut the vines to three. The flag itself came much later. In 1895, prompted by a memorial from the Anna Warner Bailey chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Governor Owen Vincent Coffin proposed adopting an official state flag, and the design submitted by chapter regent Abby Day Slocomb won out. The General Assembly wrote the flag into law in 1897, and the design has not changed since. ### The Flag of Delaware URL: https://www.flagdb.com/delaware Adopted: 1913-07-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware Last updated: 2026-08-06 Delaware's flag is a colonial blue field with a buff diamond at its center, carrying the state coat of arms: a farmer and a militiaman flanking a shield with wheat, corn, and an ox, a ship above, and the motto "Liberty and Independence" below. Under the diamond, in white, is the date December 7, 1787, the day Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The proportions are 2:3. Blue and buff are the colors of George Washington's Continental Army uniform. The flag flies at the statehouse in Dover and public buildings across the state. History: Delaware adopted its flag on July 24, 1913, on the recommendation of a commission appointed that February. The coat of arms at its center is far older, dating to 1777, the year after independence, and Delaware regiments carried versions of it on their colors during the Civil War. The 1913 law fixed the arms inside a buff diamond on a colonial blue field and added the ratification date below. The shades themselves were pinned down much later: in 1954 the state matched colonial blue and buff to specific Textile Color Card Association standards, verified by the National Bureau of Standards. The design has not changed since adoption. ### The Flag of Florida URL: https://www.flagdb.com/florida Adopted: 1868-05-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida Last updated: 2026-08-06 Florida's flag is a white field crossed by a red saltire (a diagonal X), with the state seal at the center. The seal shows a Seminole woman scattering flowers, a sabal palmetto palm, a steamboat, and a brilliant sun, ringed by the words "Great Seal of the State of Florida: In God We Trust." The proportions are 2:3, the red bars are one fifth of the hoist in width, and the seal's diameter is half the hoist. The design is fixed in a 1900 constitutional amendment, restated since 1970 in state statute. History: Florida flew its state seal on a plain white field from 1868 until 1900. In 1899 the legislature proposed adding a red saltire, reportedly at the urging of former governor Francis P. Fleming, a Confederate veteran who thought the white flag looked like a banner of truce when hanging limp. Voters ratified the amendment on November 6, 1900, by 5,088 votes to 3,819. Whether the red X was meant to echo the Confederate battle flag or the Spanish Cross of Burgundy that flew over colonial Florida is still argued by historians. The seal itself was thoroughly corrected in 1985, and the flag was updated to match. ### The Flag of Hawaii URL: https://www.flagdb.com/hawaii Adopted: 2005-06-06 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii Last updated: 2026-08-06 Hawaii's flag has eight horizontal stripes, running white, red, blue from the top and repeating, with the British Union Jack in the canton. The stripes are the eight major islands: Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawe, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau. It is the only US state flag to carry another country's flag, a legacy of the Kingdom of Hawaii's early ties to Britain. The same design has flown over Hawaii as a kingdom, a republic, a US territory, and since 1959 a state. The usual proportions are 1:2, and the exact shades of red and blue are not fixed in law. History: Captain George Vancouver presented a British flag to Kamehameha I in 1794, and it flew over the islands he was uniting until about 1816, when a distinct Hawaiian flag was created: stripes added to the Union Jack, possibly to avoid offending either Britain or the United States after the War of 1812. Its design is often credited to advisers including Captain Alexander Adams, though no record settles it. Early versions varied between seven and nine stripes; the count was fixed at eight after the 1843 Paulet affair, when a British captain occupied the kingdom for five months before London disavowed him. The eight-stripe flag was unfurled on May 25, 1845, and has not changed since, surviving the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy, 1898 annexation, and 1959 statehood. ### The Flag of Idaho URL: https://www.flagdb.com/idaho Adopted: 1907-03-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho Last updated: 2026-08-06 Idaho's flag is the Great Seal of the State of Idaho centered on a blue field, with a red and gold band beneath it reading "State of Idaho" in gold letters. The seal shows a miner and a female figure of justice and equality facing each other beside a shield of mountains, forest, and the Snake River, with an elk's head above, sheaves of grain below, and the Latin motto "Esto Perpetua," let it be perpetual. The official proportions are an unusual 26:33, and ceremonial versions carry gilt fringe, a holdover from the military flag the design came from. History: The Idaho legislature created the state flag on March 12, 1907, modeling it on the battle flag carried by the First Idaho Infantry in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War; the regiment's name below the seal was replaced with "State of Idaho." The seal itself was chosen in an 1891 competition open to artists nationwide and won by Emma Edwards Green, a Boise art teacher who collected the $100 prize and remains the only woman to have designed a US state seal. She drew the miner and the woman the same height on purpose, anticipating women's suffrage, which Idaho adopted in 1896. The flag was adjusted in 1927, and in 1957 the seal was redrawn by Paul B. Evans of Caxton Printers. ### The Flag of Illinois URL: https://www.flagdb.com/illinois Adopted: 1970-07-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Illinois is the central emblem of the state seal on a white field, with the word "Illinois" in blue letters underneath. The emblem is a bald eagle perched on a boulder in a prairie, the sun rising over water behind it, holding a shield of thirteen stars and stripes and a red banner in its beak reading "State Sovereignty, National Union." The boulder carries two dates: 1818, the year of statehood, and 1868, the year the seal was adopted. On both seal and flag, the word "Sovereignty" is printed upside down. History: Illinois adopted its first flag on July 6, 1915, after a three-year campaign by Ella Park Lawrence, state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, who ran a design contest with a $25 prize. Lucy Derwent's winning entry placed the seal's elements on white. The law became effective without Governor Edward Dunne's signature. In 1969, Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel, serving in Vietnam, petitioned the state to add its name to the flag because nobody in his mess hall could identify it. Governor Richard Ogilvie signed the change on September 17, 1969, and the current version, standardized by Florence Hutchison of Greenfield, became official on July 1, 1970. A 2024 redesign contest ended with voters preferring the existing flag. ### The Flag of Indiana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/indiana Adopted: 1917-05-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana Last updated: 2026-08-06 Indiana's flag is a gold torch on a dark blue field, ringed by nineteen gold stars. Six rays stream outward from the flame. The outer circle of thirteen stars is the original thirteen states, the inner arc of five is the states admitted next, and the large star above the torch, under the word "Indiana," is the nineteenth state itself. The torch stands for liberty and enlightenment, the rays for their reach. Official colors are Pantone 072C blue and 109C gold, and the flag is made in 2:3 and 3:5 proportions. History: Indiana marked its 1916 statehood centennial with a flag competition run by the Daughters of the American Revolution, which drew more than 200 entries and a $100 prize. The winner was Paul Hadley, a watercolor artist from Mooresville trained in Philadelphia, who later taught at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. The General Assembly adopted his design on May 31, 1917, with one change: it added the word "Indiana" in a crescent above the large star, an addition Hadley had not planned. The design was officially a state banner until 1955, when the legislature renamed it the state flag and standardized its dimensions. It has never otherwise been altered. ### The Flag of Iowa URL: https://www.flagdb.com/iowa Adopted: 1921-03-12 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iowa Last updated: 2026-08-06 Iowa's flag is a vertical tricolor of blue, white, and red, with the white center stripe wider than the other two. On the white stripe a bald eagle carries blue streamers in its beak, inscribed with the state motto: "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." The word IOWA sits below in red capitals. Designer Dixie Cornell Gebhardt said the blue is for loyalty, justice, and truth, the white for purity, and the red for courage. It flies at the state capitol in Des Moines and public buildings statewide. History: Iowa went 75 years after statehood without a flag. The push came in 1917 from Iowa National Guard units serving on the Mexican border, who noticed that regiments from other states carried their own banners. Dixie Cornell Gebhardt of Knoxville, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, designed a tricolor with an eagle and the state motto, and the DAR and the Iowa State Council for National Defense accepted it in May 1917. Flags made to her design went overseas with Iowa units in World War I. Formal adoption took four more years, partly because some Iowans felt a state flag would compete with the Stars and Stripes. Governor Nathan E. Kendall signed House File 398 on March 29, 1921, making it official. ### The Flag of Kansas URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kansas Adopted: 1961-09-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Kansas is a dark blue field, proportioned 3:5, with the state seal in the center. Above the seal is the state crest: a sunflower, the state flower, resting on a twisted bar of gold and blue. Below, in gold block capitals, is the word KANSAS. The seal itself is a crowded prairie scene: a rising sun, a river with a steamboat, a settler's cabin, a plowman, an ox-wagon train heading west, and a buffalo herd pursued by two mounted Native Americans, all beneath 34 stars and the motto "Ad astra per aspera." History: Kansas tried a banner before it tried a flag. In 1925 the legislature adopted a state banner, the state seal and a sunflower on a blue field, designed to hang from a horizontal bar. It proved awkward to display, could not be flown from a standard flagpole, and was rejected for display in Washington, D.C. The flag that replaced it began as a homemade one: Hazel Avery of Lincoln, Kansas, designed and sewed a seal-and-sunflower flag for a Fourth of July parade in 1925. Adjutant General Milton R. McLean pushed the design through the legislature, and it was adopted in 1927. The only change since came in 1961, when the word KANSAS was added in gold letters at the bottom so the flag could be told apart from the many other blue American state flags. ### The Flag of Kentucky URL: https://www.flagdb.com/kentucky Adopted: 1918-03-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky Last updated: 2026-08-06 Kentucky's flag is the state seal on a navy blue field, proportioned 10:19 like the United States flag. The seal shows two men clasping each other in greeting, a frontiersman in buckskin and a statesman in a dress coat, circled by the words "Commonwealth of Kentucky" and the state motto "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Sprigs of goldenrod, the state flower, curve beneath the seal. The two figures are often said to be Daniel Boone and Henry Clay, though officially they are no one in particular. The flag flies at the capitol in Frankfort and state buildings across the Commonwealth. History: The Kentucky General Assembly adopted the flag on March 26, 1918, from a design by Jesse Cox Burgess, an art teacher in Frankfort, though flags carrying the state seal had been in informal use since at least the 1880s. The seal itself dates to December 1792, the Commonwealth's first year, when Governor Isaac Shelby commissioned it. The motto is usually traced to "The Liberty Song" of 1768, with its line "by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall." The 1918 law left the details loose, and renderings varied for decades until the 1962 General Assembly passed exact specifications in KRS 2.030, reportedly the first Kentucky statute to include illustrations. That standardized flag, finalized in the early 1960s, is the one flown today. ### The Flag of Louisiana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/louisiana Adopted: 1912-07-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana Last updated: 2026-08-06 Louisiana's flag is a blue field carrying a white pelican in her nest, wings raised over three chicks, tearing at her own breast to feed them. Three drops of blood fall from the wound, a detail required by law since 2006. Below the nest a white ribbon reads "Union Justice Confidence," the state motto, in blue letters. The image is the medieval emblem known as the pelican in her piety, a symbol of self-sacrifice that has marked Louisiana's seals since territorial days. The current standardized drawing dates from 2010. History: The pelican has been Louisiana's emblem since before statehood; a territorial seal showing a pelican feeding her young was in use by 1804, a choice credited to Governor W.C.C. Claiborne. Pelican flags flew unofficially through the nineteenth century, including during the Civil War, but the legislature only made one official on July 1, 1912, during the state's centennial year. The 1912 law was vague, and over the decades the three drops of blood that had marked nineteenth-century versions quietly disappeared from most flags. In 2006, after a Houma student named Joseph Louviere noticed the missing drops, the legislature required them by law, and in November 2010 the state unveiled a fully standardized flag with a new pelican drawn by artist Curtis Vann Jr. ### The Flag of Maine URL: https://www.flagdb.com/maine Adopted: 1909-06-16 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine Last updated: 2026-08-06 Maine's flag is the state coat of arms on a blue field, the same blue as the union of the United States flag, in the unusual proportions of 26:33. The shield shows a moose resting beneath a white pine. A farmer with a scythe and a seaman leaning on an anchor stand either side of it, agriculture on one hand and the sea on the other. Above the shield sit the North Star and the motto "Dirigo," Latin for "I lead"; below, a ribbon reads MAINE. The state's original 1901 flag, a green pine and blue star on a buff field, remains widely flown as an unofficial alternative. History: Maine's first flag, adopted March 21, 1901, was strikingly plain: a green pine tree on a buff field with a blue North Star in the corner. It lasted eight years. On February 23, 1909, the legislature replaced it with the full state coat of arms on blue, modeled on the regimental colors Maine units had carried in the Civil War, to honor Union veterans. The 1909 flag has flown ever since, but the 1901 design never quite died, and around the state's 2020 bicentennial it became a fixture on merchandise across Maine. In November 2024, a statewide referendum on restoring a modernized 1901 design, drawn by Adam Lemire of Gardiner, was rejected by about 55 percent to 45, and the 1909 flag stayed in place. ### The Flag of Maryland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/maryland Adopted: 1880-10-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland Last updated: 2026-08-06 Maryland's flag is quartered, proportioned 2:3, and unlike anything else on an American flagpole. The first and fourth quarters carry the Calvert arms: six vertical gold and black bars crossed by a counterchanged diagonal. The second and third carry the Crossland arms: a quartered red and white field bearing a cross bottony, a cross whose arms end in trefoil buds, with the colors counterchanged. The design is the heraldic banner of the Barons Baltimore, Maryland's founding proprietors, and it is the only US state flag drawn directly from English heraldry. History: The flag reproduces the arms of George Calvert, first Baron Baltimore, who combined his paternal gold-and-black arms with the red-and-white arms of his mother's family, the Crosslands. During the Civil War the two halves split politically: Unionist Maryland used the Calvert gold and black, while Marylanders fighting for the Confederacy took the red and white cross bottony as their badge, wearing the "secession colors" on uniforms and clothing. After the war, a flag quartering both sets of arms began appearing at public events as a symbol of reconciliation, first documented at a Baltimore parade in October 1880 marking the city's 150th anniversary. Maryland National Guard troops carried it at Gettysburg in 1888, and the General Assembly made it the official state flag on March 9, 1904. ### The Flag of Massachusetts URL: https://www.flagdb.com/massachusetts Adopted: 1971-03-21 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Massachusetts is a white field bearing the Commonwealth's coat of arms: a blue shield with a Native American figure in gold, holding a bow in one hand and an arrow pointed downward in the other, with a white five-pointed star beside his head. Above the shield, a bent arm grasps a broadsword; around it, a blue ribbon carries the Latin motto "Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem," "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty." The seal's imagery has been contested for decades, and a state commission is currently working on replacements for the seal, flag, and motto. History: Massachusetts adopted its state flag on March 18, 1908, formalizing a coat of arms whose elements go back to the 1780 seal and, further, to colony seals depicting Native Americans from 1629 onward. The current drawing was standardized in the 1890s by artist Edmund H. Garrett, who modeled the figure's head on a photograph of Thomas Little Shell, an Ojibwe chief. Until 1971 the flag's reverse side carried a different design, a green pine tree on a blue shield; that year the legislature made the arms appear on both sides. Native American groups and legislators have sought changes to the seal since the 1980s. A special commission that ran from 2021 to 2023 recommended change without settling on a design, and a successor advisory commission began a public redesign process in 2024 that is still under way. ### The Flag of Michigan URL: https://www.flagdb.com/michigan Adopted: 1911-06-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan Last updated: 2026-08-06 Michigan's flag is a dark blue field carrying the full state coat of arms, usually in 2:3 proportions. An elk and a moose hold up a light blue shield showing a man on a peninsula at sunrise, one hand raised in peace, the other holding a long gun. A bald eagle perches above, and three Latin mottoes run across ribbons: "E Pluribus Unum," "Tuebor" (I will defend), and "Si Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam Circumspice" (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you). It flies over the Capitol in Lansing and state buildings across both peninsulas. History: This is Michigan's third state flag. The first, from 1837, carried the coat of arms on one side and a portrait of the state's boy governor, Stevens T. Mason, on the other. An 1865 replacement paired the state arms with the national arms on the reverse. The current design came with Act 209 of 1911, which reduced the flag to a single sentence: "The State Flag shall be blue charged with the arms of the State." It took effect on August 1, 1911. Caroline Campbell, a Grand Rapids historian active in the Daughters of the American Revolution, had campaigned for the change after rediscovering the original 1837 flag. The arms themselves are much older, dating to the state seal Lewis Cass designed in 1835. ### The Flag of Minnesota URL: https://www.flagdb.com/minnesota Adopted: 2024-05-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota Last updated: 2026-08-06 Minnesota's flag, in use since May 11, 2024, has a dark blue panel at the hoist shaped like the state's outline, carrying a white eight-pointed star. The rest of the field is light blue. The proportions are 3:5. The dark blue is the night sky and the shape of Minnesota itself; the star is the North Star of the state motto, "L'Etoile du Nord"; the light blue is the state's water, the source of its Dakota name. The official colors are a deep navy (Pantone 648) and a pale sky blue (Pantone 305). History: Minnesota flew versions of a seal-on-blue flag from 1893 until 2024, revised in 1957 and 1983. The seal showed a farmer plowing while a Native American man rode past on horseback, imagery long criticized by Dakota and Ojibwe people as a picture of their displacement. In 2023 the legislature created the State Emblems Redesign Commission, which received 2,123 flag submissions from the public. On December 19, 2023 it chose a design by Andrew Prekker, a 24-year-old from Luverne, simplifying his striped fly into a single light blue field. The new flag became official on May 11, 2024, Statehood Day. ### The Flag of Mississippi URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mississippi Adopted: 2021-01-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi Last updated: 2026-08-06 Mississippi's flag, official since January 11, 2021, has a wide dark blue vertical band at the center, edged with thin gold stripes and flanked by red bars. On the blue band sits a white magnolia blossom with a gold stamen, ringed by twenty white stars for Mississippi's place as the twentieth state, plus a gold star of diamond shapes at the top honoring the state's Native American tribes. Below the flower runs the required motto "In God We Trust." The design is known as the New Magnolia; the statute calls it the In God We Trust Flag. History: From 1894 to 2020, Mississippi's flag carried the Confederate battle emblem in its canton, the last state flag in the country to do so. A 2001 referendum kept that design by a 64 to 36 margin, but in June 2020, amid nationwide protests after George Floyd's murder and with the NCAA and SEC threatening to pull championship events from the state, the legislature passed House Bill 1796 retiring the flag. A nine-member commission chose a magnolia design led by graphic designer Rocky Vaughan from nearly 3,000 public submissions, the law requiring "In God We Trust" and banning the battle emblem. Voters approved it with 73 percent on November 3, 2020, and it was signed into law on January 11, 2021. ### The Flag of Missouri URL: https://www.flagdb.com/missouri Adopted: 1913-03-22 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri Last updated: 2026-08-06 Missouri's flag is a horizontal tricolor of red, white, and blue with the state coat of arms at the center, inside a blue band carrying 24 white stars. The stars mark Missouri's entry to the Union as the 24th state in 1821. On the arms, two grizzly bears hold a shield combining the U.S. arms with a bear and crescent moon, above a scroll reading "Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto," Latin for "Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law." The red stands for valor, the white for purity, and the blue for permanency, vigilance, and justice. History: Marie Elizabeth Watkins Oliver of Cape Girardeau, chair of a Daughters of the American Revolution committee on a state flag, began researching designs in 1908 after learning Missouri had no official flag. She proposed the tricolor with the state arms, and a bill followed in 1909. It failed, as did a second attempt in 1911, the year her original hand-painted design burned in the State Capitol fire. Oliver had a silk replacement made, and on March 22, 1913, Governor Elliot Woolfolk Major signed the flag into law. The restored silk original is displayed in Jefferson City, and the design has not changed since. ### The Flag of Montana URL: https://www.flagdb.com/montana Adopted: 1981 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana Last updated: 2026-08-06 Montana's flag is the state seal centered on a blue field, with "MONTANA" in gold capital letters above it. The seal is a landscape: mountains, forest, and the Great Falls of the Missouri River under a sunrise, with a plow, a pick, and a shovel in the foreground for farming and mining. A ribbon at the bottom carries the motto "Oro y Plata," Spanish for gold and silver, the metals that built the territory. The state name is set in Helvetica Bold, a detail fixed by law in 1985. History: The design began as a military banner. Colonel Harry Kessler supplied a flag to the 1st Montana Infantry, U.S. Volunteers, as the regiment left in 1898 to fight in the Spanish-American War: the state seal on blue, embroidered "1st Montana Infty, U.S.V." When the troops came home from the Philippines, the banner was popular enough that the 1905 legislature adopted it as the state flag, minus the regimental lettering. It flew unchanged until 1981, when "MONTANA" was added above the seal so the flag could be told apart from other seal-on-blue state flags, and 1985, when the lettering was standardized as Helvetica Bold. Redesign proposals in 1974, 1979, and the 2020s went nowhere. ### The Flag of Nebraska URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nebraska Adopted: 1925 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska Last updated: 2026-08-06 Nebraska's flag is the Great Seal of the state reproduced in gold and silver on a field of national blue. The seal, adopted in 1867, is a landscape of the young state's economy: a blacksmith at his anvil, a settler's cabin with sheaves of wheat, a steamboat on the Missouri River, and a train heading toward the Rocky Mountains, all beneath the motto "Equality Before the Law" and the statehood date of March 1st, 1867. The flag flies over the Capitol in Lincoln and state buildings, in the same proportions as the U.S. flag. History: Nebraska went longer without a flag than almost any state. Florence Hazen Miller, a Daughters of the American Revolution member from Crete, pushed for one after requests arrived from Washington for a Nebraska flag that did not exist, and in 1925 Representative J. Lloyd McMaster's bill adopted the seal on blue as an official "banner." The House passed it 92 to 4. The same legislature turned down a modernized seal drawn by Bertram Goodhue, architect of the state capitol. Nebraska did not formally call the banner a "flag" until 1963, one of the last states to have one. Redesign attempts in 1972, 2002, and 2017 all failed. ### The Flag of Nevada URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nevada Adopted: 1991-07-25 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada Last updated: 2026-08-06 Nevada's flag is a cobalt blue field with its emblem tucked into the upper hoist corner rather than the center. The emblem is a silver five-pointed star between two crossed sprays of sagebrush, the state flower, forming a half wreath, with the word "NEVADA" below the star and a golden scroll above reading "Battle Born." The star is the Silver State's metal; the scroll recalls Nevada's admission to the Union on October 31, 1864, in the middle of the Civil War. History: Nevada's first flag, from 1905, spelled out "Silver" and "Gold" in stars. A 1915 replacement by Clara Crisler centered the state seal with 36 stars, but it was so elaborate it cost a small fortune to manufacture. A 1926 design contest with a 25 dollar prize produced the current layout by Louis Shellback III, adopted in 1929 under Governor Fred Balzar. A clerical error in the bill scattered the letters of "NEVADA" between the star's points, and the state flew that unintended version for six decades until a legislative researcher noticed in 1989. The corrected flag, with the name in an arc below the star, became official in 1991. ### The Flag of New Hampshire URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-hampshire Adopted: 1909 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Hampshire Last updated: 2026-08-06 New Hampshire's flag is the state seal on a blue field, in proportions of 2:3. The seal shows the frigate Raleigh under construction on the stocks at Portsmouth Harbor in 1776, with a rising sun behind her and a granite boulder in the foreground. A laurel wreath rings the seal, interrupted by nine stars for New Hampshire's place as the ninth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. The flag flies over the State House in Concord and on public buildings throughout the state. History: New Hampshire got by without an official flag until 1909, when the legislature put the existing state seal on a blue field. The design has changed only once since, and indirectly: in 1931 the state standardized the seal itself, which engravers had been redrawing freely for over a century. The 1931 law, effective January 1, 1932, fixed every detail by statute, including the frigate Raleigh on the stocks, the rising sun, the water of Portsmouth Harbor, and a granite boulder for the Granite State. Proposals to replace the seal with the Old Man of the Mountain or to add the "Live Free or Die" motto have surfaced periodically, most recently in 2024, and all have failed. ### The Flag of New Jersey URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-jersey Adopted: 1896-05-11 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey Last updated: 2026-08-06 New Jersey's flag is the state coat of arms centered on a buff field, the only buff-colored state flag in the country. The arms show a shield with three plows for agriculture, a horse's head above a knight's helmet, and two supporters: Liberty with her staff and cap, and Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture, holding a cornucopia. A scroll below reads "Liberty and Prosperity" with the date 1776. The official colors, buff and Jersey blue, were fixed by statute in 1965 and trace back to Revolutionary War uniforms. History: The coat of arms came first. Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, a Swiss-born artist in Philadelphia who had a hand in several early American seals, designed it for the new state in 1777. The flag followed in 1896, when the legislature put the arms on a buff field. The choice of buff was historical: George Washington's order of September 14, 1779 directed that the coats of the New Jersey Continental Line be dark blue with buff facings, and a 1780 war office directive tied each regiment's colors to those facings. In 1965 the state pinned down the exact shades by statute, defining Jersey blue and buff with cable numbers from the Color Association of the United States. ### The Flag of New Mexico URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-mexico Adopted: 1925 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexico Last updated: 2026-08-06 New Mexico's flag is a red Zia sun symbol centered on a field of yellow, in proportions of 2:3. The sun is a circle with four groups of four rays extending in the cardinal directions; to the Zia people, four is a sacred number tied to the directions, the seasons, the times of day, and the stages of life. The red and yellow are the colors of old Spain, carried into the region by Spanish colonizers in the sixteenth century. It is the only state flag that uses neither blue nor white, and a 2001 survey of flag scholars rated it the best flag in the United States and Canada. History: New Mexico's first flag, designed by Ralph E. Twitchell around 1915, crowded a turquoise field with the U.S. flag, the state seal, the number 47, and the state's name in diagonal lettering. The Daughters of the American Revolution pushed for something better and ran a design contest in 1923. The winner was Harry Mera, a Santa Fe physician and archaeologist, who adapted a sun symbol from a nineteenth-century pot made at Zia Pueblo; his wife Reba sewed the first flag. Governor Arthur T. Hannett signed the design into law on March 19, 1925, and it has not changed since. The Zia people were never consulted, a fact the state legislature formally acknowledged in 2012. ### The Flag of New York State URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-york Adopted: 1901-04-02 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_(state) Last updated: 2026-08-06 New York's flag is the state coat of arms on a dark blue field. The arms show the sun rising over the Hudson River highlands, with two vessels, a square-rigged ship and a sloop, sailing the river below. Liberty holds a staff topped with a Phrygian cap, a discarded royal crown at her feet; Justice, blindfolded, holds a sword and scales. Above the shield an American eagle perches on a globe turned to show the North Atlantic. The scroll below carries the state motto Excelsior ("ever upward") and, since 2020, E pluribus unum. History: The coat of arms dates to March 16, 1778, when New York's Revolutionary government adopted it, and the whole design is an argument for independence: Liberty stands with a crown thrown down at her feet. Renderings drifted for a century until the legislature standardized the arms in 1882. The first official state flag, adopted in 1896, put the arms on a buff field, buff being the facing color Washington had assigned New York's Continental troops. The choice annoyed veterans of regiments that had always carried blue, and on April 2, 1901 the legislature changed the field to blue, where it has stayed. In 2020 the state added the national motto, E pluribus unum, to the scroll. ### The Flag of North Carolina URL: https://www.flagdb.com/north-carolina Adopted: 1885 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Carolina Last updated: 2026-08-06 North Carolina's flag has a blue vertical union at the hoist and two horizontal bars, red over white, in the fly. In the center of the union a white five-pointed star sits between the gilt letters N and C, with two gilt scrolls above and below. The upper scroll reads May 20th, 1775, the date of the disputed Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence; the lower reads April 12th, 1776, the date of the Halifax Resolves, the first official state call for American independence. The design dates to 1885, with proportions adjusted in 1991. History: North Carolina adopted its first flag in the summer of 1861, weeks after seceding from the Union. Designed by William Garl Browne, a Raleigh portrait artist, it had a red field with a white star and two dates: the Mecklenburg Declaration of May 20, 1775, and secession day, May 20, 1861. In 1885, with the war twenty years past, the General Assembly rebuilt the flag. A bill introduced by Johnstone Jones, the state's former adjutant general, turned the red union blue, kept the star, added the letters N and C, and swapped the secession date for April 12, 1776, the date of the Halifax Resolves. That act of editing, trading secession for independence, produced the flag North Carolina still flies. ### The Flag of North Dakota URL: https://www.flagdb.com/north-dakota Adopted: 1911-03-03 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota Last updated: 2026-08-06 North Dakota's flag is a bald eagle on a dark blue field, wings spread, with a striped shield on its breast. The eagle grips an olive branch in one foot and a sheaf of seven arrows in the other, and carries a ribbon in its beak reading E Pluribus Unum. Above it, thirteen stars in two arcs sit beneath a golden sunburst; below, a red scroll carries the words North Dakota. The official proportions are an unusual 26:33. The design is a near-copy of the regimental colors the First North Dakota Infantry carried in the Philippines. History: The flag is a soldier's flag. The First North Dakota Infantry carried a regimental standard based on the arms of the United States through the Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War, and when the men came home, the flag came to stand for their service. In January 1911 Colonel John H. Fraine, who had commanded North Dakotan troops, introduced House Bill 152 to make the regimental design the state flag, with the unit designation on the scroll replaced by the words North Dakota. It passed, and the flag was adopted on March 3, 1911. A 1943 law standardized the colors and fringe, and a 1951 commission's proposal for a wholly new design died in the legislature in 1953. ### The Flag of Ohio URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ohio Adopted: 1902-07-10 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio Last updated: 2026-08-06 Ohio's flag is the only non-rectangular state flag in the United States: a swallowtail pennant, officially a burgee, with proportions of 8:13. A blue triangle at the hoist holds seventeen white stars and a white circle with a red center, which doubles as the letter O and a buckeye, the state's namesake nut. Five horizontal stripes, three red and two white, taper into the forked tail. The triangle is read as the state's hills and valleys, the stripes as its roads and waterways, and the seventeen stars mark Ohio's admission as the seventeenth state. History: John Eisenmann, a Cleveland architect and engineer, designed the flag in 1901 for the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, where it flew over the Ohio Building he had also designed. The shape came from military cavalry guidons and nautical burgees rather than from any other state flag, which is why no other state flag looks anything like it. The General Assembly adopted it as the official state flag on May 9, 1902. It has never been redesigned. Later legislatures added trimmings instead: an official salute in 2002 and, in 2005, a ceremonial seventeen-fold procedure worked out by a Boy Scout for his Eagle Scout project. ### The Flag of Oklahoma URL: https://www.flagdb.com/oklahoma Adopted: 1925-04-02 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma Last updated: 2026-08-06 Oklahoma's flag is a round Osage rawhide shield on a French blue field, in 2:3 proportions. Seven eagle feathers hang from the shield's lower edge, and six painted crosses, a Plains symbol for stars, decorate its face. Crossed over the shield are a calumet, the ceremonial peace pipe, and an olive branch: one peace emblem Native, one European. The word OKLAHOMA runs beneath in white letters. The design is read as a united people who prefer peace but can defend themselves. History: Oklahoma's first state flag, adopted in 1911, was a white star on a red field with the number 46 at its center. After the First World War, red flags carried socialist associations that made legislators uncomfortable, so in 1924 the Oklahoma Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution ran a contest for a replacement. Louise Funk Fluke of Shawnee won with her Osage shield design, researched with help from Joseph Thoburn of the Oklahoma Historical Society, and the legislature adopted it on April 2, 1925. The state's name was added beneath the shield in 1941. Decades of inconsistent reproductions followed, until a 2006 law fixed the exact colors and dimensions in statute. ### The Flag of Oregon URL: https://www.flagdb.com/oregon Adopted: 1925-04-15 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon Last updated: 2026-08-06 Oregon's flag is navy blue with all its artwork in gold, and it is the only US state flag with two different sides. The front carries the escutcheon from the state seal, topped by an eagle and ringed by thirty-three stars for Oregon's admission as the thirty-third state, with STATE OF OREGON above and 1859 below. The back has a single gold beaver, the state animal. Navy blue and gold are Oregon's official state colors, and the statute sets an unusual legal proportion of 500:833. History: Oregon went without a state flag until 1925, when Portland's postmaster asked for one to include in an all-states display in Washington, D.C. Governor Walter Pierce signed Senate Bill 195 on February 26, 1925, putting the state seal's shield on the front of a navy and gold banner and a beaver on the back. Seamstresses at the Meier & Frank department store in Portland sewed the first example that spring. Two-sided flags were once common among the states, but the cost of making them thinned the ranks; when Massachusetts dropped the pine-tree reverse from its flag in 1971, Oregon became the last state with a different design on each side, and it has turned back several redesign efforts since. ### The Flag of Pennsylvania URL: https://www.flagdb.com/pennsylvania Adopted: 1907-06-13 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania Last updated: 2026-08-06 Pennsylvania's flag is the state coat of arms on a blue field, with the law requiring the blue to match the blue of the United States flag. The arms are a shield bearing a ship under sail, a plow, and three sheaves of wheat, with a bald eagle above and two black draft horses rearing on either side. A cornstalk and an olive branch cross beneath the shield, and a red ribbon carries the motto "Virtue, Liberty and Independence." The arms date to 1778; the flag was standardized in 1907. History: Pennsylvania's coat of arms first appeared in 1778, in a rendering credited to Caleb Lownes of Philadelphia, and the General Assembly authorized flags for the state militia in 1799. Through the nineteenth century the design varied from flag to flag, enough that a state commission was appointed to fix an authoritative version of the arms, reporting in 1875. The flag itself was standardized by an act of June 13, 1907, which put the arms on a blue field matching the national flag's blue. It has not changed since, though legislators have periodically proposed adding the state's name, and a 2023 proposal called for a commission to study a redesign. ### The Flag of Rhode Island URL: https://www.flagdb.com/rhode-island Adopted: 1897-11-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island Last updated: 2026-08-06 Rhode Island's flag is a gold anchor on a white field, circled by thirteen gold stars, with a blue ribbon beneath the anchor bearing the single word HOPE. The statute makes it nearly square, 29:33, though commercial flags are usually cut to standard proportions. The anchor and motto have been on Rhode Island's seal since the colony's earliest decades, the anchor drawn from a Bible verse describing hope as "an anchor of the soul." The thirteen stars are the original colonies, of which Rhode Island was the thirteenth to ratify the Constitution. History: The anchor has been Rhode Island's emblem since the 1640s, when the colony founded by religious dissenters put it on its seal with the word Hope, an allusion to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Regiments carried anchor flags in the Revolution, but the state took until 1877 to adopt a civil flag. That design lasted five years; an 1882 law replaced it with a blue flag, and on November 1, 1897, the General Assembly settled on the current white flag with the gold anchor, thirteen stars, and the Hope ribbon. It has not changed since, which makes it one of the longer-serving unaltered state flags. ### The Flag of South Carolina URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-carolina Adopted: 1861-01-26 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina Last updated: 2026-08-06 South Carolina's flag is an indigo blue field with a white palmetto tree in the center and a white crescent in the upper hoist corner, usually flown in 2:3 proportions. The crescent comes from the caps of South Carolina's Revolutionary troops, the blue from their uniforms, and the palmetto from the palmetto-log fort that repelled a British fleet at Sullivan's Island in 1776. State law has never fixed the exact shapes or shades, so every flag maker's palmetto and crescent differ slightly, a quirk the state has so far declined to fix. History: The flag descends from the banner Colonel William Moultrie designed in 1775 for South Carolina's Revolutionary forces: a blue field, matching the troops' uniforms, with a white crescent like the one on their caps. That flag flew over the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island that beat back the Royal Navy on June 28, 1776. When South Carolina seceded, the General Assembly added the palmetto to Moultrie's design, briefly approving a golden palmetto on January 26, 1861, before settling on white two days later. The January 28, 1861 flag is still the state flag, though its details have never been standardized, and a 2020 attempt to fix an official version collapsed over the look of its palmetto. ### The Flag of South Dakota URL: https://www.flagdb.com/south-dakota Adopted: 1992-11-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Dakota Last updated: 2026-08-06 South Dakota's flag is a sky blue field carrying the state seal in navy on white, ringed by a blazing golden sun. Around the sun, in gold capitals, run the words SOUTH DAKOTA above and THE MOUNT RUSHMORE STATE below. The seal inside shows a farmer plowing, cattle, a steamboat on a river, a mill, and hills, with the motto "Under God the People Rule" and the statehood year 1889. The usual proportions are 3:5, with gold fringe added for indoor display. History: South Dakota's first flag, adopted in 1909, had two different sides: a blazing sun on the front with the words "The Sunshine State," and the state seal on the reverse. Ida Anding, later known as Pierre broadcaster Ida McNeil, produced the design after state historian Doane Robinson suggested the sun theme. Double-sided flags were expensive to make, so in 1963 the legislature moved the seal inside the sun and made the flag one-sided, over McNeil's objection. In 1992 the motto around the seal changed from "The Sunshine State" to "The Mount Rushmore State," matching the state's new nickname. Bills to study a full redesign failed in 2012 and 2024. ### The Flag of Tennessee URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tennessee Adopted: 1905-04-17 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee Last updated: 2026-08-06 Tennessee's flag is a crimson field with a blue circle at its center holding three white five-pointed stars, and a narrow blue bar at the fly edge separated from the field by a white stripe. The stars are the state's three Grand Divisions, East, Middle, and West Tennessee, and the circle binds them as one. The stars are angled so that no one of them sits above the others. The proportions are 3:5. The tristar emblem has become Tennessee's unofficial logo; it appears on license plates and in the Tennessee Titans' branding. History: Tennessee's first flag, created for the state's centennial era in 1897, was a diagonal tricolor carrying the number 16 and the words "The Volunteer State," and it never caught on. LeRoy Reeves, a Johnson City attorney serving in the Third Regiment of the Tennessee National Guard, designed a replacement, and the General Assembly adopted it on April 17, 1905, as Chapter 498 of that year's Public Acts. Reeves documented his intent: three stars for the three Grand Divisions of the state, bound in an endless circle of blue, with a blue bar at the fly added for a practical reason, to keep the flag from showing plain crimson when hanging limp. The design is unchanged since 1905. ### The Flag of Texas URL: https://www.flagdb.com/texas Adopted: 1839-01-24 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Texas flag has a blue vertical stripe at the hoist, one third of the flag's length, with a single white five-pointed star at its center. The remaining two thirds are split into a white stripe over a red one. The proportions are 2:3, and state law matches the colors to the United States flag: Pantone 193 for the red and Pantone 281 for the blue. Blue stands for loyalty, white for purity, and red for bravery. The lone star gave the state its nickname, and Texans fly the flag everywhere: on the Capitol in Austin, on pickup trucks, on porches. History: The Congress of the Republic of Texas adopted the Lone Star Flag on January 25, 1839, from a bill introduced by Senator William H. Wharton. The drawing attached to the act was made by Peter Krag, but the designer of the flag itself was never recorded. It replaced the Burnet Flag, a gold star on blue, which had been the national flag since 1836. When Texas joined the Union in 1845, the national flag simply became the state flag. A quirk followed: the Revised Civil Statutes of 1879 repealed the flag law without replacing it, leaving Texas with no legally defined flag until the legislature passed a flag code on August 31, 1933. The legislature specified exact Pantone shades in 2001. ### The Flag of the State of Georgia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/georgia-state Adopted: 2003-05-08 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(U.S._state) Last updated: 2026-08-06 Georgia's flag has three horizontal bands, red, white, and red, with a blue canton in the upper hoist corner. Inside the canton, a circle of thirteen white stars surrounds the state coat of arms in gold: an arch labeled "Constitution" resting on three pillars for the legislative, judicial, and executive branches, with the words "In God We Trust" beneath. The layout is that of the first national flag of the Confederacy, the "Stars and Bars." By law the red and blue match the shades of the United States flag. It has flown since 2003. History: Georgia's first official flag, adopted in 1879, was modeled on the Confederate Stars and Bars by a state senator who had fought for the Confederacy. In 1956, during the legislature's campaign of "massive resistance" to school desegregation, the state replaced two thirds of the flag with the Confederate battle emblem. That flag flew for 45 years and became the most contested state symbol in America. Governor Roy Barnes pushed through a compromise flag in 2001, shrank the battle emblem to a small inset, and lost his job over it. In 2003 the legislature adopted the current design, based again on the Stars and Bars, and voters ratified it 73 percent to 27 in a 2004 referendum. ### The Flag of Utah URL: https://www.flagdb.com/utah Adopted: 2024-03-09 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utah Last updated: 2026-08-06 Utah's flag, in use since March 9, 2024, has three horizontal bands: a dark blue top with a jagged lower edge forming white mountain peaks, a wide white middle, and a red base. At the center sits a gold beehive inside a blue hexagon outlined in gold, with a white five-pointed star below it. The proportions are 3:5. The blue is for Utah's skies and lakes, the white peaks for its snowy mountains, the red for the southern deserts, the hexagon for the honeycomb and community, and the star for the five tribal nations of Utah. The beehive is the state's oldest emblem, standing for industry. History: Utah flew seal-on-blue flags for over a century. A 1911 resolution made the governor's flag official, a 1913 revision added a gold ring and full-color shield (originally a manufacturing error), and a separate flagmaker's error in 1922, which misplaced the date 1847, went uncorrected until 2011. In 2021 Senator Daniel McCay's legislation created a task force to design a new flag. A public process drew 5,703 submissions in 2022, narrowed to 20 semifinalists and then a final design. The legislature passed SB31 in March 2023, Governor Spencer Cox signed it on March 21, and the beehive flag took effect on March 9, 2024, Utah Flag Day. The old flag remains co-official as the "historic state flag." ### The Flag of Vermont URL: https://www.flagdb.com/vermont Adopted: 1923-06-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont Last updated: 2026-08-06 Vermont's flag is the state coat of arms on a field of azure, at proportions of 3:5. The arms show a tall pine tree in the center of a green landscape, with a red cow on one side and three yellow wheat sheaves on the other, and the Green Mountains rising behind under a yellow sky. A stag's head sits above the shield as a crest, crossed pine branches frame the sides, and a red scroll below carries the state name and the motto "Freedom and Unity." The pine is Vermont's forests, the cow its dairy farms, the sheaves its fields, and the mountains the ones that named the state. History: The Vermont General Assembly adopted the current flag on June 1, 1923, taking over the design of the governor's flag. Two earlier state flags had been variations on the Stars and Stripes. The first, adopted May 1, 1804, had seventeen stripes and seventeen stars with VERMONT lettered across the top, anticipating a US flag change that never came. The second, adopted October 20, 1837, had thirteen stripes and a single large star containing the coat of arms in the canton. Both were routinely confused with the national flag, which is why the 1923 law abandoned stripes altogether. The arms themselves descend from the great seal Ira Allen designed for the independent Vermont Republic in 1778. ### The Flag of Virginia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/virginia Adopted: 1861-01-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia Last updated: 2026-08-06 Virginia's flag is a deep blue field with a white circle at the center bearing the obverse of the state seal, shown identically on both sides. Within the circle, Virtus, the Roman personification of virtue, stands dressed as an Amazon with a spear pointed down and a sheathed sword, one foot on the chest of a fallen tyrant whose crown lies beside him. He holds a broken chain in one hand and a scourge in the other. Below runs the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis," thus always to tyrants. State law permits a white fringe on the fly edge, and most official flags carry it. History: The seal on the flag dates to July 1776, when the Virginia Convention appointed George Mason, George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, and Robert Carter Nicholas to design one for the newly independent commonwealth. The design is generally credited chiefly to Wythe. The flag itself came much later: Virginia adopted it on April 30, 1861, days after seceding from the Union, so regiments would have a state banner. It was readopted and standardized in 1912, codified by statute in 1950, and in 1930 the sculptor Charles Keck produced a standard rendering of the seal to end decades of inconsistent artwork. ### The Flag of Washington State URL: https://www.flagdb.com/washington-state Adopted: 1923-03-05 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_(state) Last updated: 2026-08-06 Washington's flag is the state seal centered on a green field: a portrait of George Washington inside a gold ring lettered "The Seal of the State of Washington 1889." It is the only US state flag with a green background and the only one bearing the likeness of a president. The specified colors are Irish green (PMS 348) for the field, Spanish yellow (PMS 116) for the ring and optional fringe, and Oriental blue (PMS 311) inside the seal. Approved proportions are 2:3, 3:5, or 5:8, with the seal's diameter one third of the flag's length. The green is Western Washington's forests and fields, the gold Eastern Washington's wheat. History: Washington had no official flag for its first 34 years of statehood. Soldiers of the Washington Volunteer Infantry carried an unofficial banner with a gold profile of George Washington on blue during the Philippine-American War in 1899. In 1915 the state chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, through a design committee led by Emma Chadwick, produced the green flag bearing the state seal, and the legislature made it official on March 5, 1923. The seal itself was improvised in 1889 by Olympia jeweler Charles Talcott and his brothers. In 1967 the legislature adopted a cleaner seal rendering by designer Dick Nelms, based on Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington, and that version appears on the flag today. ### The Flag of West Virginia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/west-virginia Adopted: 1929-03-07 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia Last updated: 2026-08-06 West Virginia's flag is a white field bordered on all sides by a blue stripe, with the state coat of arms at the center. The arms show a farmer with a woodsman's axe and a miner with a pickaxe flanking a boulder inscribed June 20, 1863, the date of statehood. Two crossed hunting rifles lie in front, topped by a red liberty cap, above a scroll with the motto "Montani Semper Liberi," mountaineers are always free. A wreath of rhododendron, the state flower, curves around the arms, and a red ribbon above reads "State of West Virginia." The proportions match the US flag. History: West Virginia broke away from Confederate Virginia and entered the Union on June 20, 1863, and adopted its coat of arms that September, designed by Doddridge County artist Joseph H. Diss Debar, who also proposed the motto. A flag took longer. Regiments carried a version authorized in 1864, but the first official state flag came only in 1905, adapted from a banner used at the 1904 St. Louis world's fair, with the arms on one side and a sprig of rhododendron on the other. A 1907 revision swapped the sides. Two-faced flags were expensive and impractical to make, so the legislature settled the current single design, arms and wreath together on a white field, on March 7, 1929. ### The Flag of Wisconsin URL: https://www.flagdb.com/wisconsin Adopted: 1981-05-01 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin Last updated: 2026-08-06 Wisconsin's flag is a royal blue field with the state coat of arms at the center, the word WISCONSIN in white capitals above it and 1848, the year of statehood, below. The arms are held up by a sailor and a miner and show a shield quartered with a plow, a crossed pick and shovel, an arm and hammer, and an anchor: agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and navigation. A small US shield at the center carries the national motto, a badger crouches on the crest, and a cornucopia and pyramid of lead ingots sit at the base. The proportions are 2:3, and the design is identical on both sides. History: Wisconsin adopted its first flag by joint resolution in 1863, after Civil War regiments asked for a state banner to carry into the field. The design lapsed and varied until 1913, when the legislature wrote the flag into statute: the state coat of arms on dark blue, on both sides. It stayed that way for decades, indistinguishable at a distance from a crowd of other blue seal flags. In 1979 the legislature amended the law to add the state name above the arms and the date 1848 below, with the change taking effect May 1, 1981. The lettering fixed the identification problem and gave critics of writing-on-flags their favorite example. ### The Flag of Wyoming URL: https://www.flagdb.com/wyoming Adopted: 1917-01-31 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming Last updated: 2026-08-06 Wyoming's flag is a dark blue field framed by an inner white border and an outer red one, with a white silhouette of an American bison at the center. On the bison's flank, placed like a livestock brand, sits the Great Seal of Wyoming, showing a woman holding a banner reading "Equal Rights" between two male figures and two pillars. The red border stands for the Native peoples of the land and the blood of pioneers, the white for purity, and the blue for the skies and mountains and for fidelity and justice, colors that also match the national flag. The bison faces the hoist. History: In 1916 Grace Raymond Hebard, state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution, ran a design contest for a Wyoming flag with a 20 dollar prize. It drew 37 entries and was won by Verna Keays of Buffalo, a fresh graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, who said the design came to her on waking in the night: a bison bearing the state seal as a brand. Keays drew the bison facing the fly, roaming free toward open country. Hebard insisted it be turned to face the staff, and it was. Governor John B. Kendrick signed the adoption bill, sponsored by Senator William W. Daley, on January 31, 1917. The statute never did specify which way the bison faces. ## Cities ### The City of London URL: https://www.flagdb.com/city-of-london Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London Last updated: 2026-04-11 The flag of the City of London is a white field with the red cross of St George, the patron saint of England. In the top left quarter, in the white space beside the cross, stands a red sword pointing upwards, the sword of St Paul, for the martyrdom of Paul the Apostle. The proportions are traditionally 2:3. History: The St George's Cross goes back to the medieval period as the emblem of England and its patron saint. The sword of St Paul is the City of London's own addition, and it is what separates the City's flag from the English national one. It stands for the sword that beheaded Paul the Apostle, and it has marked the City since at least 1381, when the cross-and-sword shield was recorded on a new seal for the lord mayor. An earlier City seal of 1319 already showed St Paul holding his sword. The flag has carried the City's separate identity within London and the United Kingdom ever since. ### The Flag of Amsterdam URL: https://www.flagdb.com/amsterdam Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam Last updated: 2026-04-09 Amsterdam's flag has three horizontal bands, red at the top and bottom with black between them, and three white Saint Andrew's crosses stacked down the black band. The elements come from the city's coat of arms. It is simple enough to draw from memory, and no other city flag looks much like it. History: The crosses come out of Amsterdam's medieval history. They are thought to derive from the arms of the Persijn family, prominent landowners in the area that became Amsterdam, whose knight Jan Persijn was lord of Amstelledamme from 1280 to 1282. The oldest surviving document showing the crosses in use by the city is a seal from 1419, where they fly from a flag on the ship in the seal's design, and a lead stamp for cloth seals dug up on the Damrak carries them from around 1350. From there the crosses passed into the city's coat of arms and then into general use as a symbol of Amsterdam itself. The red stripe is a later addition, bringing the flag closer to the Dutch national colors. The flag took its current form officially in the 20th century, and the crosses remain the part of it that everyone recognizes. ### The Flag of Berlin URL: https://www.flagdb.com/berlin Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin Last updated: 2026-04-10 The flag of Berlin has three horizontal stripes of red, white and red, the two red ones each a fifth of the height and the white one the remaining three fifths. A black bear standing upright, with red claws and a red tongue, sits on the white stripe, set slightly towards the hoist. The bear is a pun on the city's name. The proportions are 3:5, and there are two variants: the civil flag, which shows the bear on its own, and the state flag for government use, which shows the full coat of arms, the bear on a white shield beneath a golden crown of five leaves. History: Berlin adopted the current flag on 26 May 1954, under a law on the state's sovereign symbols passed earlier that month, though red and white had been the city's colours for centuries. The bear goes back much further, to the Middle Ages, and appears in local legend, heraldry, and civic seals. The 1954 adoption came after the Second World War and the division of the city into East and West, when Berlin's identity had to be re-established. The design has held ever since, through the Cold War and reunification. ### The Flag of Chicago URL: https://www.flagdb.com/chicago Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago Last updated: 2026-04-10 Chicago's flag has two blue horizontal stripes on a white field, with four red six-pointed stars in a row across the center. The proportions are 2:3. The white bands stand for the North, West, and South sides of the city. The top blue stripe is Lake Michigan and the North Branch of the Chicago River, and the bottom one is the South Branch and the Great Canal. Each star marks an event in the city's history, and each of the six points on a star carries a meaning of its own. History: Wallace Rice designed the flag, and the city adopted it on April 4, 1917, after a competition run by the Chicago Municipal Flag Commission. The original version had two stars, for the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. A third was added in 1933 for the Century of Progress Exposition, and a fourth in 1939 for Fort Dearborn, the outpost that stood here before the city did. Proposals to add a fifth star have come up more than once, including one to mark the election of Barack Obama as President, but none has passed. The flag still has four. ### The Flag of Denver URL: https://www.flagdb.com/denver Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denver Last updated: 2026-08-06 Denver's flag is a landscape reduced to four shapes. A white zigzag runs across the middle, with a blue field above it and a red field below. A yellow disk sits centered in the blue, cradled between the zigzag's two peaks. Read together: a gold sun in a blue sky over the snow-capped Rocky Mountains, above the red earth that gave Colorado its name. The sun's central position marks Denver's place near the middle of the state. The city adopted the design in 1926, and its unusual official proportions are 4:7. History: In the early 1920s the Sons of the American Revolution sponsored a contest for a Denver city flag, putting up a 25 dollar prize that the city council matched to make 50 dollars. The Denver Art Commission judged more than 150 entries and picked a design by Margaret Overbeck, a student at North High School. The city council adopted her flag in 1926, and it has flown unchanged since. Overbeck's design has aged well: in the North American Vexillological Association's 2004 survey of 150 U.S. city flags, Denver's placed third, behind only Washington, D.C. and Chicago, and the flag now turns up on merchandise and murals around the city. ### The Flag of Johannesburg URL: https://www.flagdb.com/johannesburg Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannesburg Last updated: 2026-04-11 The flag of Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city, places the city coat of arms on a green background. The arms show a shield supported by two lions, with a helmet above and a mine dump below, a reference to the gold mining that founded the city and paid for its growth. The green stands for growth and prosperity. History: Johannesburg's flag has changed alongside the city's emblem and coat of arms. The arms at its center were granted in 1907, after the city was founded in 1886 during the gold rush, and the earliest emblem and flag designs leaned heavily on that mining heritage. The design has been updated since to keep pace with the city's growth. The current version, with the revised coat of arms on a green field, is the official municipal flag and represents the city at events at home and abroad. ### The Flag of New York City URL: https://www.flagdb.com/new-york-city Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of New York City is a vertical tricolor of blue, white, and orange, with the blue band at the hoist and the city seal printed in blue on the center white band. The proportions are 3:5. The colors are those of the Prince's Flag flown by the Dutch when New Amsterdam was founded in 1625. The seal carries a windmill, beavers, flour barrels, a sailor, a Lenape man, a bald eagle, and the date 1625. The flag flies at City Hall and on municipal buildings across the five boroughs. History: A blue-ribbon committee created the flag for 1915, the 250th anniversary of the installation of the city's first mayor under English rule. Working with the New-York Historical Society, it chose the orange, white, and blue of the early seventeenth-century Dutch flag and placed the municipal seal on the center band. The Board of Aldermen approved the design on April 6, 1915, and it was unveiled on June 24. The committee summed it up: the colors are Dutch, the arms are English, the crest is American. The only change since came on December 30, 1977, when City Council president Paul O'Dwyer had the date on the seal moved from 1664, the English takeover, to 1625, the founding of New Amsterdam. ### The Flag of Paris URL: https://www.flagdb.com/paris Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Paris is a vertical bicolor, blue at the hoist and red at the fly. The two halves carry the city's colors, in use since 1358: blue for Saint Martin and red for Saint Denis, by the traditional account. The version flown by the city government adds the municipal coat of arms at the center, a silver ship on waves beneath a blue band of gold fleurs-de-lis. The same blue and red flank the white of the monarchy in the French tricolor, which took its outer stripes from the flag of Paris in 1789. It flies at the Hotel de Ville and city buildings alongside the national flag. History: Blue and red have been the colors of Paris since 1358, the era of Etienne Marcel, the merchants' provost who led the city against the crown and whose partisans wore red and blue hoods. Tradition ties red to Saint Denis, the city's martyred first bishop, and blue to Saint Martin. In July 1789 revolutionary militiamen wore cockades of the two city colors; the white of the Bourbon monarchy was added between them, by the standard account at Lafayette's instigation, producing the French tricolor. A plain blue and red city flag existed by the eighteenth century, and the modern municipal flag, with the city arms centered on the bicolor, was formalized in the twentieth. The arms themselves descend from the seal of the Seine boatmen's guild, recorded around 1210. ### The Flag of St. Louis URL: https://www.flagdb.com/st-louis Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of St. Louis is a red field crossed by wavy blue bars edged in white. Two bars flow in from the upper and lower hoist corners, meet at center, and continue as a single bar to the fly: the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers joining at the city. At the junction sits a gold disk bearing a blue fleur-de-lis, for the city's French founders and its namesake, King Louis IX of France. The proportions are 5:8, and the four colors recall the flags of Spain, Bourbon France, Republican France, and the United States, all of which have flown over the city. History: On November 28, 1962, Mayor Raymond R. Tucker appointed a five-member committee to produce a new flag for the city's 1964 bicentennial. Its members included museum directors and historians; the design that emerged came from committee member Theodore Sizer, an art historian and director emeritus of the Yale University Art Gallery with a working knowledge of heraldry. The city adopted his flag on February 3, 1964. It replaced a busy 1916 design credited to A. P. Woehrle, though actually drawn by Edward A. Krondl, who had entered it under a friend's name after his first submission was rejected; that earlier flag had only been given formal recognition in 1946. ### The Flag of Tokyo URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tokyo Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo Last updated: 2026-08-06 The official flag of the Tokyo Metropolis is a deep purple field, in the traditional shade called Edo purple, carrying the white metropolitan crest: a stylized sun with six rays around a central disk, read as Tokyo at the center of Japan. The proportions are 2:3. Since 1989 it has shared duty with a second banner, a white flag bearing a green three-arc symbol shaped like a ginkgo leaf and the letter T. The purple flag is the formal one; the green symbol flag is the one on Tokyo's buses, buildings, and publications day to day. History: The crest came first. Tokyo City's council approved the six-rayed sun emblem, designed by Hiromoto Watanabe, in December 1889, and the Tokyo Metropolis kept it when city and prefecture merged, formally adopting it on November 2, 1943. The flag itself, the white crest on Edo purple, was adopted on October 1, 1964, nine days before the opening of the Tokyo Olympics. In 1989 the metropolitan government added a modern mark: a green ginkgo-leaf symbol by graphic designer Rei Yoshimura, chosen from 20 candidates and adopted on June 1, with a white symbol flag following on September 30. Both flags remain official, the 1964 flag for formal occasions and the 1989 flag for everyday use. ### The Flag of Washington, D.C. URL: https://www.flagdb.com/washington-dc Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C. Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Washington, D.C. is a white field with two horizontal red bars and, above them, three red five-pointed stars in a row. The design comes straight from the heraldic coat of arms of George Washington's family, which the city is named after. The proportions are fixed by the hoist: the top white band is three tenths, each bar two tenths, the gap between them one tenth, and each star two tenths in diameter. It flies on District government buildings, appears on local license plates, and has become the emblem of the D.C. statehood movement. History: The District had no official flag until 1938, when Congress passed Public Law 650 creating a commission to pick one. The winning design belonged to Charles A. R. Dunn, a graphic artist who had first drawn it in 1921 and had been promoting it publicly since the mid-1920s. It adapts the arms confirmed to Lawrence Washington of Sulgrave Manor in 1592: two red bars and three red mullets on a silver field. The commission adopted it on October 15, 1938, and the flag first flew at the District Building later that month. Official credit initially went to commission president Melvin C. Hazen and Army heraldic expert Arthur E. Du Bois; Dunn spent years reclaiming authorship, including in a 1957 article on the flag's origins. ## Historical Symbols ### The Banner of the Holy Roman Empire URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-banner-of-the-holy-roman-empire Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Empire Last updated: 2026-04-14 The flag most often associated with the Holy Roman Empire in its later centuries is the imperial banner, the Reichsbanner: a black double-headed eagle on a golden or yellow field, wings spread. The two heads were read as the empire's authority over the secular and the spiritual, the union of church and state that sat at the core of imperial ideology. The eagle is usually armed and beaked in red, though versions vary a great deal. It stood for strength and majesty, and for imperial authority sanctioned by God. A separate banner, the Reichssturmfahne, served as the empire's war standard. History: The double-headed eagle became a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire in the late medieval period. It grew out of the single-headed imperial eagle, which came in turn from the Roman eagle standard and the claim of continuity with ancient Rome. A double-headed version is attributed to Frederick II in a chronicle drawing of around 1250, but it was Sigismund who made it the emperor's own device after his coronation in 1433, leaving the single-headed eagle to stand for the King of the Romans. It became the empire's primary emblem, a statement that the empire was Rome's successor and the center of European Christendom. The banner itself was used in various forms until the empire was dissolved in 1806, changing along with heraldic fashion and imperial politics. It marked the emperor's authority, and it was carried in ceremonies and into battle. The eagle outlived the empire: it still appears in the heraldry and flags of several European states that trace their history back to it. ### The Flag of Czechoslovakia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/czechoslovakia Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovakia Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Czechoslovakia has two horizontal bands, white over red, with a blue isosceles triangle extending from the hoist to the midpoint of the flag. The proportions are 2:3. White and red are the colors of Bohemia; the blue wedge was added in 1920 to bring in Slovakia and to distinguish the flag from Poland's, which uses the same white-over-red bands. Adopted on 30 March 1920, the design outlived the state itself: since 1993 it has flown as the flag of the Czech Republic. History: Independent Czechoslovakia initially flew a plain white-over-red banner drawn from the arms of Bohemia, which turned out to be nearly identical to the flag newly adopted by Poland. A government commission solved the problem with a blue wedge at the hoist, in a design by Jaroslav Kursa, an archivist at the interior ministry. The National Assembly approved it on 30 March 1920. The Nazis banned the flag in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in 1939; it returned in 1945 and flew through the communist era unchanged. When the federation split in 1992, Constitutional Act 542/1992 forbade both successor states from using federal symbols. The Czech National Council adopted the flag anyway on 17 December 1992, effective 1 January 1993, reasoning that the ban died with the state that wrote it. Slovakia objected, took its own flag, and the dispute faded. ### The Flag of East Germany URL: https://www.flagdb.com/east-germany Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germany Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic) is the German black-red-gold horizontal tricolor with the GDR state emblem at the center: a hammer and compass inside a ring of rye. The hammer is the working class, the compass the intelligentsia, and the rye the farmers, the three pillars of the self-described workers' and peasants' state. The proportions are 3:5. The plain tricolor flew from 1949; the emblem was added on 1 October 1959, and the flag disappeared with the state on 3 October 1990. History: When the GDR was founded on 7 October 1949, it adopted the plain black-red-gold tricolor, identical to West Germany's flag, after Friedrich Ebert Jr. successfully argued for the democratic colors of 1848 and Weimar over the old imperial black-white-red. For a decade the two rival German states flew the same flag. On 1 October 1959 the GDR added its state emblem to the center, ending the ambiguity. West Germany dubbed the result the "Spalterflagge," the divider flag, and treated its public display as a breach of public order; police in the West took it down until the federal government ordered them to stop on 22 July 1969. In the upheaval of 1989-90, some East German demonstrators cut the emblem out of their flags. The flag ceased to exist with reunification on 3 October 1990, when the plain tricolor became the flag of all Germany again. ### The Flag of the Ottoman Empire URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ottoman-empire Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Ottoman Empire, adopted in 1844, is a red field with a white crescent moon and a white five-pointed star beside it. It was the empire's first national flag in the modern sense, introduced during the Tanzimat reforms to give the state a single standardized emblem in place of the many dynastic, military and naval banners used before. The design survived the empire itself: the flag of the Republic of Turkey is the same red field, crescent and star, given precise legal specifications in 1936. History: For most of its six centuries the Ottoman state had no national flag, using instead horse-tail standards called tughs, war banners bearing the split-bladed Zulfiqar sword, and assorted red and green flags for the army, navy and sultan. A 1793 decree under Selim III put a white crescent and an eight-pointed star on the navy's red flags. In 1844, as part of the Tanzimat modernization under Sultan Abdülmecid I, the state adopted a single national flag on the European model: red, with a white crescent and a five-pointed star. It flew until the empire's end in 1922. The Republic of Turkey kept the design, and a 1936 law fixed its exact geometry, so the Ottoman national flag remains in daily use, more precisely drawn, over a republic. ### The Flag of The Rising Sun URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-rising-sun Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rising_Sun_Flag Last updated: 2026-04-18 The flag of the Rising Sun, or Kyokujitsu-ki (旭日旗), has a red sun disc at the center with 16 rays running out to the edges of a white field. The design shows the sun at dawn, throwing light across the sky, and the red against white makes the motif read from a distance. Historically it has stood for vitality and expansion, drawing on the sun as a life-giving force. History: The Kyokujitsu-ki has a long and complex history in Japan, dating back to the Edo period (1603-1868), when it was first used on ships for maritime expeditions. It came to prominence during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, a period of rapid modernization and Westernization. The Imperial Japanese Navy adopted it officially in 1889, when Japan was building itself into an imperial power. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, particularly during World War II, the Rising Sun flag became closely associated with the Japanese imperial military, leading to its controversial status in countries that suffered under Japanese occupation. After the war, the use of the flag was largely restricted to certain militaristic and nationalist contexts within Japan. In recent years, the flag has been seen in a more neutral light, used in various cultural and sporting events to represent Japan, though it still evokes strong emotions and historical memories in East Asia. Its usage, particularly in international settings, often sparks debate due to its association with Japan's imperialist past. ### The Flag of the Soviet Union URL: https://www.flagdb.com/soviet-union Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Soviet Union is a plain red field with a gold hammer and sickle in the upper hoist corner, topped by a red five-pointed star outlined in gold. The proportions are 1:2. Red is the color of revolution, carried over from the banners of the 1871 Paris Commune. The crossed hammer and sickle stand for the alliance of industrial workers and peasants, and the star for the Communist Party's leadership. It flew over the USSR from 1923 until the state dissolved in December 1991. History: The USSR was founded in December 1922, and its first flag specification, a red field with the state coat of arms, was never mass-produced. On 12 November 1923 the Central Executive Committee adopted the familiar design instead: hammer, sickle and bordered star in the canton of a red field. The 1924 Soviet Constitution wrote it into law. A statute of 19 August 1955 fixed the geometry precisely for the first time, and a 1980 revision made the reverse side officially plain red, though manufacturers often ignored that. The flag came down over the Kremlin on the evening of 25 December 1991, minutes after Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Soviet president, and the Russian tricolor went up in its place. Today the flag is legal and common at communist rallies in Russia, while several former Soviet-bloc states, including Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Georgia, restrict or ban its public display. ### The Flag of Yugoslavia URL: https://www.flagdb.com/yugoslavia Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Federal_Republic_of_Yugoslavia Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of Yugoslavia is a horizontal tricolor of blue, white and red, the pan-Slavic colors adopted at the 1848 Prague Slavic Congress. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia flew the plain tricolor. The socialist federation added a red five-pointed star with a narrow yellow border at the center, in a flag with 1:2 proportions adopted in 1946. The rump Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dropped the star in 1992, and the plain tricolor flew over Belgrade until Serbia and Montenegro separated in 2006. No state has used any version since. History: The blue-white-red tricolor came with the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, founded in 1918 and renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. The colors were the pan-Slavic set agreed at the 1848 Prague Slavic Congress, themselves modeled on the Russian flag. During World War II Tito's Partisans fought under the tricolor with a red star added, and the socialist federation made that official on 31 January 1946, in a version credited to the painter Đorđe Andrejević-Kun with a yellow-bordered star at the center. When the federation broke apart, the leftover state of Serbia and Montenegro proclaimed itself the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 27 April 1992 and raised the tricolor without the star that same day. That flag survived the 2003 renaming to Serbia and Montenegro and was retired on 3 June 2006, when Montenegro's independence ended the last Yugoslav state. ### The Jolly Roger URL: https://www.flagdb.com/jolly-roger Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jolly_Roger Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Jolly Roger is the pirate flag of the Golden Age of piracy: typically a black field bearing white symbols of death, most famously a skull over crossed bones. There was never one standard design. Documented versions carried skeletons, hourglasses, cutlasses, bleeding hearts and full-length figures, each captain flying his own. The flag's job was intimidation, persuading a merchant crew to surrender without a fight. Raised in the moments before an attack, it announced who was coming and invited the prey to do the math. History: Black flags with death imagery appear in the record around 1700, when the captain of HMS Poole reported the French pirate Emanuel Wynn flying a black ensign with a death's head, crossed bones and an hourglass. Over the next quarter century the design vocabulary spread through the pirates of the Caribbean and Atlantic, alongside an older signal: the plain red flag meaning no quarter. The name "Jolly Roger" is first recorded in the 1720s, applied by crews to quite different designs, and its origin is unsettled; a 1723 report says pirates called the flag "Old Roger," a nickname for the devil. Piracy's suppression in the 1720s ended the flag's working life, but not its career: Royal Navy submarines have flown the Jolly Roger returning from successful patrols since 1914. ### The Royal Banner of Scotland URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-royal-banner-of-scotland Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Banner_of_Scotland Last updated: 2026-04-15 The Royal Banner of Scotland, better known as the Lion Rampant, is a red lion with a blue tongue and claws on a gold field. Around it runs a double red border studded with fleurs-de-lis, called the royal tressure. The design is heraldic and has belonged to Scottish royalty for centuries. Unlike the Saltire, Scotland's national flag, the Royal Banner belongs to the monarch, and its use by private citizens is technically restricted by law: it is meant for government and royal buildings, or for the monarch. History: The history of the Royal Banner of Scotland dates back to the 12th century, though the exact origins are somewhat unclear. It is believed to have been used by King William I of Scotland (1143-1214), also known as William the Lion, which may be where the lion rampant comes from. It has been carried into battle and displayed at royal events ever since, as a mark of Scottish sovereignty. The double tressure flory-counter-flory (the double red border with fleurs-de-lis) is thought to have been added by Robert the Bruce in the 14th century, standing for loyalty and royal authority. The banner survived Scotland's shift from independent kingdom to part of Britain. Its use is regulated by the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the official responsible for heraldry in Scotland, and it still stands in for the Scottish monarch at official and ceremonial occasions. ## Indigenous Peoples ### The Australian Aboriginal Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/australian-aboriginal Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Aboriginal_flag Last updated: 2026-04-15 The Australian Aboriginal flag has three elements: a black top half, a red bottom half, and a yellow circle at the centre. Black is for the Aboriginal people of Australia, red for the earth and the spiritual relationship to the land, and the yellow circle for the sun, the giver and protector of life. It is a unifying symbol for Indigenous peoples across the continent. History: Harold Thomas, a Luritja man from Central Australia, designed the flag in 1971. It first flew on National Aborigines Day in Adelaide on 12 July 1971 and was quickly taken up as a symbol of Aboriginal pride and of the fight for rights. It gained national attention as the flag of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra in 1972. In 1995 the Australian government recognised it as an official 'Flag of Australia' under the Flags Act 1953, giving it equal prominence with the National Flag. It is flown at cultural and sporting events, at protests, and on days of significance including NAIDOC Week and Australia Day. ### The Mapuche Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/mapuche Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Mapuches Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Mapuche flag, the Wenufoye, has three horizontal bands of blue, green, and red, edged top and bottom with black borders carrying a white stepped pattern called the ngümin. At the centre, on the green band, is a yellow kultrun, the ceremonial drum of the machi, painted with the Mapuche map of the cosmos: the four directions with sun, moon, and morning star between them. Blue is life, order, and the sacred; green the land and its fertility; red strength and the memory of struggle. It is flown by Mapuche communities and movements in Chile and Argentina. History: The Consejo de Todas las Tierras (Aukiñ Wallmapu Ngulam), a Mapuche organization led by werkén Aucán Huilcamán, called for a national Mapuche flag in March 1991, as the region prepared to mark five hundred years since Columbus. Around 500 designs were submitted, and the winning flag was adopted on 5 October 1992 and named Wenufoye, "winter's bark of the sky," after the canelo, the sacred tree of Mapuche medicine. In 2010 Chile's Comptroller General ruled that municipalities may fly it alongside the national flag, and during the mass protests of October 2019 it became ubiquitous, flown by Chileans of all backgrounds over the crowds in Santiago's Plaza Italia. ### The Métis Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/metis Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Métis flag is a white infinity symbol on a blue field. A red version with the same figure also exists and is the older of the two on the documentary record. The horizontal figure eight is usually read two ways: the joining of two peoples, European and First Nations, into one new nation, and the faith that Métis culture will last forever. First recorded in the Northwest fur country in 1815 and flown at the Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816, it is described as the oldest patriotic flag indigenous to Canada, predating the Maple Leaf by a century and a half. History: The flag comes out of the fur-trade rivalry between the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company on the northern plains. A Hudson's Bay trader, James Sutherland, recorded a red flag with a figure eight at Fort John in the Qu'Appelle valley in 1815, flown by Métis under Cuthbert Grant, and the blue version flew when Grant's men defeated Governor Robert Semple's party at Seven Oaks on 19 June 1816. A single contemporary account calls the flag a gift from the North West Company; the historian Jean Teillet argues the Métis made it themselves. The blue flag is today the official flag of the Métis National Council, which registered an official mark for it in 2013. ### The Sámi Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/sami Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1pmi Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Sámi flag has four vertical stripes of red, green, yellow, and blue, with red at the hoist and a wide blue field at the fly. A circle straddles the green and yellow stripes: its half toward the hoist is blue for the moon, and its half toward the fly is red for the sun. The colors are those of the gákti, traditional Sámi dress, and the circle comes from the sun symbols on Sámi shamanic drums. The flag is shared by Sámi in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, the four states that divide Sápmi. History: The Nordic Sámi Conference adopted the flag on 15 August 1986 at its 13th meeting in Åre, Sweden, choosing Astrid Båhl's design from more than seventy competition entries. Båhl, a Coast Sámi artist from Skibotn in Troms, Norway, drew on the red, green, yellow, and blue of traditional dress and on the sun-and-moon motif of shamanic drums; she connected the design to Anders Fjellner's nineteenth-century poem describing the Sámi as sons of the sun. An unofficial red, yellow, and blue flag made by artist Synnøve Persen had circulated since 1977, notably during the Alta protests. The Sámi Conference fixed the official flag days in 1992, and Norway gave the flag formal legal status in 2003. ### The Tino Rangatiratanga Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/tino-rangatiratanga Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Tino Rangatiratanga flag is black over red, split by a white koru, the unfurling fern frond of Maori design. The koru spirals out from the hoist along the centre line, dividing the two fields. Black is Te Korekore, the realm of potential being; red is Te Whai Ao, the coming into being; white is Te Ao Marama, the world of light and life. The usual proportions are 5:9. Since 2009 it has been the recognised national Maori flag of New Zealand, and it flies from the Auckland Harbour Bridge and official buildings every Waitangi Day. History: The flag came out of a 1989 competition run by Te Kawariki, a Northland activist group, ahead of the 150th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi. Hiraina Marsden, Jan Smith, and Linda Munn are credited with the design, which Munn has described as a collective effort; the first flags were sewn by hand. It was unveiled at Waitangi on 6 February 1990 and spent two decades as the banner of Maori protest, most visibly during the 2004 foreshore and seabed hikoi. In 2009 the government consulted on a national Maori flag, and around 80 percent of submissions chose this one. Cabinet recognised it in December 2009, and it first flew from the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day 2010. ### The Torres Strait Islander Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/torres-strait-islander Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_Strait_Islanders Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Torres Strait Islander flag has five horizontal stripes: green at top and bottom for the land, a wide blue centre for the sea, and thin black stripes between them for the people. Centred on the blue is a white Dhari, the feathered headdress worn by Torres Strait Islander dancers, with a white five-pointed star beneath it. The star's points are the five major island groups of the Torres Strait, and the star itself refers to peace and to the navigational importance of stars to a seafaring people. It has been an official flag of Australia since 1995. History: Bernard Namok, a Thursday Island man, designed the flag in 1992 for a competition run by the Island Coordinating Council, a Queensland statutory body. His design won from more than a hundred entries and was presented to the people of the Torres Strait on 29 May 1992 at the sixth Torres Strait Cultural Festival. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission recognised it the following month, and on 14 July 1995 the Governor-General proclaimed it a 'Flag of Australia' under the Flags Act 1953, alongside the Australian Aboriginal Flag. Namok died in 1993, a year after his design was adopted. Copyright in the design is administered by the Torres Strait Island Regional Council. ### The Wiphala URL: https://www.flagdb.com/wiphala Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiphala Last updated: 2026-08-06 The wiphala is a square flag of 49 small squares, seven by seven, in seven colors running diagonally: red, orange, yellow, white, green, blue, and violet. It is the emblem of the Indigenous peoples of the Andes, above all the Aymara and Quechua, and is flown from Ecuador to northern Argentina. The best-known version, with a white diagonal, is the wiphala of Qullasuyu, the southern quarter of the Inca world, and since 2009 it has been a state symbol of Bolivia with equal standing to the red, yellow, and green tricolor. History: The wiphala's deep origins are argued over. Squares of stepped color appear in Tiwanaku-era textiles, but historians including María Rostworowski have said flatly that the Incas had no flag, and the modern 7x7 wiphala spread with the Katarista movement of Aymara activists in the 1970s. It became the banner of Indigenous mobilization in Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Chile, and under Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indigenous president, it entered the state itself: Article 6 of the 2009 constitution lists the wiphala among the national symbols, and Supreme Decree 0241 requires it beside the tricolor on public buildings. In the crisis of November 2019 it was burned by opponents and defended in mass marches, and it became the most contested piece of cloth in the country. ## International Organizations ### The Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations URL: https://www.flagdb.com/commonwealth-of-nations Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Commonwealth of Nations is a blue field with a gold globe at its center, surrounded by radiating spearhead rays that form a rough letter C. Since a 2013 redesign there are 34 rays; the earlier version had 64. The rays have never counted the member states. They stand for the many forms of Commonwealth cooperation. The usual proportions are 3:5, with a 1:2 version for countries that prefer that ratio. The flag flies year-round at Marlborough House in London, the Commonwealth Secretariat's headquarters, and appears at Commonwealth Day ceremonies and Heads of Government Meetings. History: The flag grew out of souvenirs. At the 1973 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Ottawa, car pennants carrying the Commonwealth symbol, a gold globe within radiating rays designed the previous year for the Secretariat, proved popular with delegates. Secretary-General Arnold Smith and Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau pushed to turn the pennant into a proper flag, and it was formally adopted on 26 March 1976. The original design set the globe within 64 spearhead rays on a dark blue field. In 2013 the Secretariat modernized it: the rays were cut to 34 so the emblem reproduces cleanly at small sizes, the globe was tilted, and the blue was specified as Pantone 280. The C-shaped arrangement of rays, for Commonwealth, survived the change. ### The Flag of The European Union URL: https://www.flagdb.com/european-union Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union Last updated: 2026-04-07 The flag of the European Union has a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background. The stars sit at the center of the flag, arranged in a circle to stand for unity among the peoples of Europe. The number of stars has nothing to do with the number of member states; twelve was chosen for its associations with completeness. The blue background stands for the West and the sky above it. Nothing in the design refers to any particular member state. History: The flag dates back to 1955, when the Council of Europe adopted it to represent Europe as a whole rather than the six founding members of the European Economic Community. The European Communities, the precursor to the EU, took it on in 1985, and it is now recognized as the official emblem of the European Union. The design, a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, came from Arsène Heitz and Paul M. G. Lévy, and was picked from a large field of proposals. ### The Flag of The United Nations URL: https://www.flagdb.com/united-nations Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations Last updated: 2026-04-08 The flag of the United Nations has a world map centered on the North Pole, set inside a wreath of two crossed olive branches, the old symbol of peace. The map and the branches are light blue on a white ground. The map is drawn on a polar azimuthal equidistant projection. The flag is 2:3, the emblem's diameter is two-thirds of the flag's height, and the emblem sits one-thirtieth of that height above the exact center. History: The UN adopted its flag on October 20, 1947. An earlier emblem, approved on December 7, 1946, had already been in use on conference material and official documents. Donal McLaughlin, an architect who worked on the design of UN Headquarters, drew the original version. The map carries no political boundaries, a deliberate decision meant to keep the emblem above national divisions, and the light blue was picked because it matched no national flag of the period and read as neutral. The flag now flies at UN offices, agencies and missions worldwide, and has become closely tied to peacekeeping and humanitarian work. The organization's stated mandate is to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, and promote social progress, better living standards and human rights. ### The Flag of the World Health Organization URL: https://www.flagdb.com/world-health-organization Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the World Health Organization is the WHO emblem centered on a United Nations blue field. The emblem is the UN symbol, a white polar map of the world inside two olive branches, overlaid by the Rod of Asclepius: a staff with a single serpent coiled around it, shown in gold under the organization's flag regulations. The staff and snake have marked medicine since ancient Greece. The flag flies at WHO headquarters in Geneva, at the organization's six regional offices and at country offices, and appears prominently each World Health Day on April 7. History: WHO's constitution was signed on July 22, 1946, and entered into force on April 7, 1948, a date now kept as World Health Day. The First World Health Assembly, meeting in Geneva that summer, chose the organization's emblem: the United Nations symbol surmounted by a staff and serpent, the sign of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. Use of the emblem and name is governed by resolution WHA1.133 of that same assembly. The flag came later. In 1961 the Fourteenth World Health Assembly decided, in resolution WHA14.24, that the flag of the organization would be the 1948 emblem centered on a UN blue background, and a formal flag code issued in 1982 specifies the details, including the gold color of the staff and serpent. ### The Flag of UNESCO URL: https://www.flagdb.com/unesco Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO Last updated: 2026-08-06 The UNESCO flag is a blue field carrying the organization's logotype in white: the six letters U, N, E, S, C and O drawn as the columns of a Greek temple, topped by a pediment and standing on three steps. There is no map, no wreath, no figure, just the acronym doing double duty as architecture. The blue belongs to the UN family of blues; UNESCO's current graphic standards specify a deeper shade than the light blue of the UN flag itself. The flag flies at UNESCO headquarters on the Place de Fontenoy in Paris and at the organization's field offices and institutes worldwide. History: UNESCO's constitution was signed in London on November 16, 1945, and came into force on November 4, 1946. Unusually for a UN body, the organization has never published a creation date or a designer for its temple logotype. Design histories variously date it to the late 1940s or to 1954, and a claim crediting a Hungarian graphic designer circulates online, but none of these traces back to a primary source. What is documented is the meaning the organization settled on: Director-General Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, speaking at headquarters in 1982, described UNESCO as "this House which chose the Parthenon as its emblem." In the late 2000s UNESCO standardized a logo block pairing the temple with its full name, but the flag still carries the temple alone. ### The Flag of UNICEF URL: https://www.flagdb.com/unicef Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNICEF Last updated: 2026-08-06 The UNICEF flag is a light blue field with the organization's emblem in white at the center: a mother lifting an infant, set against a globe drawn with parallels and meridians, framed by two olive branches. The layout follows the United Nations flag, with the UN's polar map swapped for the mother and child. The blue is the same UN blue used across the UN system, and manufactured flags are commonly 2:3. It flies at UNICEF headquarters in New York and at country offices, supply hubs and field operations worldwide. History: The UN General Assembly created UNICEF on December 11, 1946, through resolution 57(I), as the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, an emergency relief operation for children in countries wrecked by the Second World War. For its first years the fund used the UN's own emblem. In 1953 the Assembly made UNICEF a permanent part of the UN system, the name was shortened to United Nations Children's Fund, and the organization adopted its first emblem of its own: a child drinking a cup of milk in front of a globe, inside olive branches. In the 1960s, after the 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child widened the mission beyond feeding programs, the milk-drinking child was replaced by a mother lifting an infant. That figure, redrawn several times since, is still the center of the flag. ## Social Movements ### The Bisexual Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/bisexual-pride Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexual_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The bisexual pride flag has three horizontal stripes: magenta pink across the top two fifths, royal blue across the bottom two fifths, and a narrower lavender purple band, one fifth of the height, between them. In creator Michael Page's scheme the pink is attraction to the same sex, the blue is attraction to the opposite sex, and the purple is the overlap, attraction to both. Page specified the colors as Pantone 226, 258, and 286, and the flag is usually made in 3:5 proportions. It flies at pride events year round and especially around Bi Visibility Day on September 23. History: Michael Page, a bisexual activist in Florida who ran the early web community BiCafe, designed the flag to give bisexual people a symbol of their own, something to match what the rainbow flag did for the wider LGBTQ+ community. He unveiled it at BiCafe's first anniversary party on December 5, 1998. The colors came from an existing symbol: the "biangles," overlapping pink and blue triangles with a lavender intersection, created by artist Liz Nania for the bisexual contingent at the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. Page declared the flag free for public and commercial use, never patenting or trademarking it. In 2020 the advocacy group BiNet USA briefly claimed copyright over the design; the claim had no legal basis and the group dropped the flag that May. The design itself has never changed. ### The Lesbian Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/lesbian-pride Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_flags Last updated: 2026-08-06 The most widely used lesbian pride flag today has five horizontal stripes running from dark orange at the top through lighter orange to a white center, then through dusty pink to dark rose at the bottom. It is a simplified version of a seven-stripe design the artist Emily Gwen posted in 2018, in which the oranges stand for gender non-conformity, independence, and community, the white for unique relationships to womanhood, and the pinks for serenity, love, and femininity. Unlike most pride flags, the lesbian flag has no single settled design, and older versions are still seen. History: Lesbians have cycled through several flags without ever crowning one. The earliest, from 1999, was Sean Campbell's labrys flag: a double-headed axe on an inverted black triangle against violet. In 2010 Natalie McCray posted the "lipstick lesbian" flag, seven pink and red stripes with a kiss mark in the corner. It drew criticism for centering femme lesbians only, and McCray was later accused of racist, biphobic, and transphobic blog comments, which sank the design, though a kiss-free "pink" variant circulated for years. In 2018 Emily Gwen, a non-binary lesbian artist, posted a seven-stripe orange-to-pink flag on Tumblr designed to include butch, femme, and gender non-conforming lesbians alike. A five-stripe simplification of Gwen's design is now the most common lesbian flag, without being official in any formal sense. ### The Non-Binary Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/non-binary-pride Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-binary_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The non-binary pride flag has four horizontal stripes of equal height: yellow, white, purple, and black from top to bottom. Yellow is for people whose gender exists outside the binary of male and female, white for people with many or all genders, purple for those whose gender mixes male and female, and black for people with no gender. Kye Rowan designed it in 2014, and it is flown at pride events, on International Non-Binary People's Day on July 14, and anywhere non-binary people want a symbol that is theirs specifically rather than borrowed from the wider transgender flag. History: Kye Rowan, then a 17-year-old, posted the design on Tumblr in February 2014. It answered a specific gap: many non-binary people felt the genderqueer flag that Marilyn Roxie had created in 2011, with its lavender, white, and green stripes, did not represent them, and Rowan built the new flag for that group. It was intended to fly alongside Roxie's flag rather than replace it, and in practice both survived, with Rowan's four stripes becoming the standard symbol as the word "non-binary" itself overtook "genderqueer" during the late 2010s. The flag has since appeared at parliaments, pride marches, and, in 2024, at the Eurovision Song Contest, where the winning Swiss singer Nemo smuggled one on stage after organizers refused permission to carry it. ### The Peace Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/peace-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The peace flag is a rainbow of seven horizontal stripes, usually purple at the top running down through blue, azure, green, yellow, and orange to red, with the word PACE (Italian for "peace") in white capitals across the center. It first flew on the 1961 Perugia-Assisi peace march organized by the philosopher Aldo Capitini, and it is most strongly associated with Italy, where more than a million of them hung from balconies during the protests against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It has one more stripe than the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag, and the colors run in the opposite direction. History: Aldo Capitini, a philosopher from Perugia and the founder of Italy's Nonviolent Movement, borrowed the idea of a many-colored peace banner from the British peace marches of the period and had a rainbow flag hastily sewn from strips of colored cloth for the first March for Peace and Brotherhood Among Peoples, a 24-kilometer walk from Perugia to Assisi held on September 24, 1961. The march has been repeated ever since, and the flag became the standard banner of the Italian peace movement, eventually acquiring the white PACE lettering that now defines it. Its biggest moment came in late 2002, when the Comboni missionary Father Alex Zanotelli helped launch the "pace da tutti i balconi" campaign against the coming Iraq War and rainbow flags appeared on balconies across Italy by the million. Capitini's original flag was kept for decades near Todi and was transferred to the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia in 2011. ### The Progress Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/progress-pride Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress_Pride_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Progress Pride flag is the six-stripe rainbow flag with a chevron added along the hoist. The chevron holds five colors: white, pink, and light blue from the transgender flag, plus brown and black for people of color, with the black stripe also standing for those living with HIV/AIDS and those lost to it. The arrow points to the right, toward the fly, to signal forward movement, while sitting at the left edge to show that progress still needs to be made. Daniel Quasar designed it in 2018, and it has since become one of the most widely flown pride flags at marches, on public buildings, and in shop windows. History: Daniel Quasar, a non-binary artist and graphic designer from Portland, Oregon, published the design in June 2018 as "Progress: a PRIDE flag reboot." It reacted directly to Philadelphia's 2017 "More Color More Pride" flag, which had added black and brown stripes to the rainbow, and to Monica Helms's 1999 transgender flag. Quasar pulled those additions out of the stripe stack and into a chevron, arguing the newer meanings deserved separation from the original six colors. A Kickstarter campaign to produce the first flags raised just over $25,000 against a $14,000 goal in June 2018, and the design spread worldwide within a couple of years. In 2021 Valentino Vecchietti of Intersex Equality Rights UK added a purple circle on a yellow triangle to the chevron, creating the intersex-inclusive variant now common at pride events. ## Regional Organizations ### The Flag of ASEAN URL: https://www.flagdb.com/asean Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASEAN Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a blue field with the ASEAN emblem at the center: a red disc rimmed in white, holding ten yellow stalks of padi (rice) bound together at the middle. Proportions are 2:3. Blue is peace and stability, red is courage and dynamism, white is purity, and yellow is prosperity; the four colors were chosen because they appear across the national flags of the member states. The ten stalks are the ten countries of Southeast Asia bound in friendship. The flag flies at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta and at the bloc's summits and ministerial meetings. History: The emblem came first. A sheaf of bound padi designed by Malaysian student Mohammad Radzi Hanif won an ASEAN logo competition held in 1977 and 1978, and the organization adopted it in 1979. ASEAN's first flag, adopted in 1994, put a six-stalk version of that emblem (five founding members plus Brunei) in a yellow circle on a white field. The current flag was adopted on 31 May 1997 at a special meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur, with the stalks increased to ten in anticipation of Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar joining. Cambodia's entry was postponed after a coup that July, so the ten-stalk flag flew over a nine-member organization until 1999. The flag's specifications were written into the ASEAN Charter, which entered into force in 2008. ### The Flag of CARICOM URL: https://www.flagdb.com/caricom Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Community Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, has a field of two blues: light blue above for the sky, dark blue below for the Caribbean Sea. At the center is a yellow circle for the sun, edged with a narrow green ring for the region's vegetation, and printed on the circle in black is the CARICOM logo: two interlocked letters C in the form of broken links in a chain. The broken links are read two ways at once, as unity among the member states and as the break with the region's colonial past. Proportions are 2:3. Officially the flag is called the CARICOM Standard. History: CARICOM was created by the Treaty of Chaguaramas, signed on 4 July 1973 by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago, but the Community went a decade without a flag. The design came from WINART Studies, a firm in Georgetown, Guyana, and was taken up by the Fourth Conference of Heads of Government in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in July 1983, where the heads modified the original submission before approving it. The finished CARICOM Standard was first flown on 4 July 1984, eleven years to the day after the Treaty was signed, at the Fifth Conference of Heads of Government in Nassau, The Bahamas. The design has not changed since. ### The Flag of The African Union URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-african-union Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union Last updated: 2026-04-09 The flag of the African Union (AU) is a green field with the AU emblem at the center. The emblem is a gold circle enclosing a gold map of Africa, the island of Madagascar included, ringed by a green circle carrying the words 'African Union' in English and 'Union Africaine' in French. Gold stands for Africa's wealth and its future, green for African hopes and aspirations. History: The African Union was established on July 9, 2002 as the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and it adopted a flag to give its member states a common identity. The design has changed since. In 2010 the AU folded its new logo into the flag, producing the current version, part of a wider push to make the Union more visible internationally. The flag is meant to stand for the collective identity of a continent, along with its shared history and its ambitions. ### The Flag of the Arab League URL: https://www.flagdb.com/arab-league Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Arab League is a green field with the League's seal at the center, usually rendered in gold: a circular chain enclosing an upward crescent and the organization's name in Arabic script, "Jami'at ad-Duwal al-'Arabiyya" (League of Arab States), the whole framed by a wreath of two olive branches tied at the base. The chain is today described as having 22 links, one for each member state. The crescent points upward, the inscription sits within its horns, and the flag is flown in proportions of 2:3 or 1:2 at League headquarters in Cairo and at Arab summits. History: The League of Arab States was founded in Cairo on 22 March 1945 by seven states: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen. Its seal, a chain and crescent within olive branches, dates from the organization's early years, and reference works generally give 1945 as the flag's adoption date, though the League has published little about the design's origin and no designer is recorded. The flag's details were never tightly standardized: documented variants from the 1950s through the 1970s show the chain in red or black, the inscription in black or gold, and the crescent in green or white. The green flag with an all-gold seal became the settled form as membership grew from seven states to the present 22, the last to join being Comoros in 1993. ### The Flag of the Organization of American States URL: https://www.flagdb.com/organization-of-american-states Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_of_American_States Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Organization of American States is a blue field carrying the OAS seal: a white disc bordered in gold, filled with the national flags of the member states on crossed golden staffs, arranged in an arc and framed by a circle. The flags run in Spanish alphabetical order, clockwise from Antigua and Barbuda at the lower left around to Venezuela. The blue was specified in 1961 as royal blue, deliberately neither light nor dark. Since the seal is a literal roster of the membership, the flag must be redrawn whenever a state joins; the current version, showing 35 flags, dates from 1991. History: The seal is much older than the flag. An emblem of member flags grouped on staffs was in use at the Pan American Union, the OAS's predecessor, by the 1920s, appearing on the organization's stationery under Director General Leo S. Rowe. After the OAS was established by the 1948 Charter of Bogotá, a flag followed slowly: one was commissioned from the flag maker Annin and Company of New York in April 1961, first used under Secretary General José Antonio Mora, and formally adopted in 1965. The design has been amended repeatedly as membership grew from the original 21 republics, most recently in 1991, when the admission of Belize and Guyana brought the count of flags in the seal to 35. ## Cultural Movements ### The International Flag of Planet Earth URL: https://www.flagdb.com/international-flag-of-planet-earth Last updated: 2026-04-13 The International Flag of Planet Earth is a proposed flag design intended to represent the planet as a whole rather than any specific nation, entity, or organization. It has a deep blue field, standing for the universe, with seven interlocking white rings arranged in a flower-like pattern at the centre: one ring surrounded by six others. The rings are commonly said to stand for the Earth's seven continents, and the way they interlock suggests how life on the planet is connected. The white stands for peace and unity. History: Oskar Pernefeldt introduced the design in 2015 as his graduation project at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm, Sweden. No government or international organization commissioned it. He proposed it for contexts where a non-national emblem for Earth would be useful: space missions, international sporting events, world fairs, and global conferences on environmental and humanitarian issues. Since then the flag has picked up support from various groups and individuals around the world. It has no official status, but it turns up in educational materials, at scientific events, and in artistic and cultural contexts. ### The Pan-African Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/pan-african Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism Last updated: 2026-04-12 The Pan-African flag, also called the Afro-American flag, the Black Liberation flag and several other names, is three equal horizontal bands: red on top, black in the middle, green at the bottom. It is a symbol of unity and freedom for Africa and the African diaspora. Red is the blood that unites all people of Black African ancestry and that was shed for their liberation. Black is Black people themselves, whose existence as a nation, though not a nation-state, the flag affirms. Green is the natural wealth of Africa. History: The Pan-African flag was adopted on August 13, 1920, at the convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Marcus Garvey, the Jamaican political leader, publisher, journalist and orator who founded the UNIA-ACL in 1914, introduced it. He proposed the flag in answer to the 1900 coon song 'Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon', whose taunt was that African Americans had no flag of their own. Since 1920 the flag has been used throughout the African diaspora, particularly in the civil rights movement in the United States, and taken up by African countries and movements asserting independence and unity. ### The Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/pride-flag Last updated: 2026-04-12 The Pride flag, commonly known as the Rainbow Flag, is a symbol of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) pride and LGBTQ+ social movements. The original flag featured eight stripes, each with its own distinct meaning: hot pink for sex, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, turquoise for magic/art, indigo for serenity, and violet for spirit. The most common variant seen today consists of six stripes, with the colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, typically in horizontal bars. It is recognized worldwide as a symbol of LGBTQ+ identity. History: The original Pride flag was designed by Gilbert Baker, an artist and drag queen, in 1978. Baker was encouraged by Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States, to create a symbol of pride for the gay community. The first version of the flag was hand-dyed and stitched by Baker and a team of volunteers and was flown at the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 25, 1978. Following the assassination of Harvey Milk, demand for the rainbow flag increased significantly. To meet demand and due to fabric availability, the flag was modified to its more common six-striped version by removing the hot pink stripe and later also removing the turquoise stripe, resulting in a flag with the six colors red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Over the years, the Pride flag has been adapted to include variations that represent different identities within the LGBTQ+ community, among them the Transgender Pride Flag and the Bisexual Pride Flag. The original rainbow flag is recognized internationally as the emblem of LGBTQ+ pride and rights movements. ### The Suffragette Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/suffragette Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffragette Last updated: 2026-04-14 The suffragette flag, also known as the "Votes for Women" flag, has three horizontal stripes of equal width in purple, white, and green. The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) adopted the colors in Britain in 1908, and within a few years they were shorthand for the whole suffrage campaign. Purple stood for dignity and self-respect, white for purity in public and private life, and green for hope and new life. The design is simple enough to be read at a distance and cheap to reproduce, which is what made it useful at demonstrations. Some versions carry the words "Votes for Women" or other slogans. History: The suffragette flag came out of the women's suffrage campaign in Britain in the early 1900s. The Women's Social and Political Union, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia, adopted the colors in 1908. The scheme was introduced by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, co-editor of the WSPU newspaper "Votes for Women," who assigned purple to loyalty and dignity, white to purity, and green to hope. The colors went well beyond flags. Suffragettes carried banners at demonstrations, wore sashes, decorated shops and homes, and pinned on badges and other accessories in purple, white, and green. The scheme spread past Britain and influenced suffrage campaigns elsewhere. After British women won the vote in 1918, with restrictions, and in full in 1928, the colors carried on as a symbol of women's rights. They are still used to mark the campaign for the vote and in arguments about gender equality now. ### The Transgender Pride Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/transgender-pride Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_pride_flag Last updated: 2026-04-13 The transgender pride flag is designed as a symbol of pride, diversity, and transgender rights. It consists of five horizontal stripes: two light blue, two pink, and one white in the center. The light blue stripes represent the traditional color for baby boys, the pink stripes represent the traditional color for baby girls, and the white stripe signifies those who are non-binary, transitioning, or consider themselves having a gender that is undefined. The flag is notable for its simplicity and its message of inclusion and respect for all people regardless of their gender identity. History: The transgender pride flag was created by American transgender woman and navy veteran Monica Helms in 1999. Helms' design was aimed at creating a symbol for the transgender community that could be used at pride events. The flag made its first public appearance at a pride parade in Phoenix, Arizona in 2000. Since its inception, the flag has been adopted worldwide as a symbol of transgender pride, awareness, and the struggle for transgender rights. It has been used in various demonstrations, pride events, and as a symbol of solidarity and support for the transgender community. The visibility and recognition of the transgender pride flag have grown significantly over the years, making it a prominent symbol in the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. ## Political Movements ### The Anarchist Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-anarchist-flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 Anarchism has two flags. The older is a plain black rectangle, in use since the 1880s: black as the negation of all national flags, and as mourning for the movement's dead. The second is a field split diagonally into red and black halves, usually red above and black below, which is the flag of anarcho-syndicalism, joining the red of the labour movement to the black of anarchism. Neither has official proportions or a governing body, which is fitting. Both are flown at demonstrations, on picket lines, and by anarchist groups worldwide. History: Early anarchists marched under the red flag alongside other socialists. Black emerged as a distinct anarchist colour in France in the early 1880s: Louise Michel called for its adoption at a Paris meeting in March 1882, and on March 9, 1883 she carried a black flag, a rag tied to a broom handle, at the head of a demonstration of the unemployed at Les Invalides in Paris. She was sentenced to six years for her role in the events that followed. A newspaper called Le Drapeau Noir appeared that August, and the black flag reached Chicago's anarchist marches by 1884. Nestor Makhno's insurgent army flew it across Ukraine from 1918 to 1921. The diagonal red-and-black flag came out of Spain in the early 1930s, where the syndicalist CNT and the anarchist FAI fought the Civil War under it. ### The Esperanto Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/esperanto-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Esperanto Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Esperanto flag is a green field with a white square canton in the upper hoist, bearing a green five-pointed star. Esperantists call it the Verda Stelo, the green star. Green is hope (the language's name comes from "esperi," to hope), white is peace and neutrality, and the star's five points are usually read as the five continents. The Universal Esperanto Association gives the proportions as 3:2, with the white square's side equal to half the flag's height. It flies at Esperanto congresses and marks speakers of the language worldwide. History: The green star came before the flag. It was proposed in 1892 in the magazine La Esperantisto as a lapel emblem so that Esperanto speakers could recognize one another. L. L. Zamenhof, who published the language in 1887, later credited the green to a suggestion by the Esperantist Richard Geoghegan and the star shape to the cover of Louis de Beaufront's Esperanto grammar. The flag itself was made by the Esperanto club of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the French port town that hosted the first World Esperanto Congress in August 1905. The 688 delegates adopted the local club's flag as the emblem of the whole movement. Some accounts say the version approved at Boulogne bore a letter E on the star, which quickly disappeared, leaving the plain green star used ever since. ### The Gadsden Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/gadsden-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Gadsden flag is a coiled timber rattlesnake on a plain yellow field, above the motto "DONT TREAD ON ME" in capital letters. The snake sits on a patch of grass, fangs out, rattle raised. Designed in 1775 by Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina, it was an early standard of the Continental Navy and Marines. Today it flies mainly as a political statement: libertarians adopted it in the 1970s, the Tea Party movement made it ubiquitous after 2009, and thirteen U.S. states have offered it on specialty license plates. History: Christopher Gadsden, a South Carolina merchant and delegate to the Continental Congress, designed the flag in 1775 while serving on the Marine Committee that outfitted the first Continental Navy squadron. He gave it to Commodore Esek Hopkins, the navy's first commander in chief, as a personal standard, and it flew aboard the flagship Alfred in December 1775. Gadsden presented a copy to the South Carolina Provincial Congress in Charleston on February 9, 1776, where the journal recorded "a yellow field, with a lively representation of a rattle-snake in the middle in the attitude of going to strike." The rattlesnake was already a familiar American emblem by then, going back to Benjamin Franklin's "Join, or Die" cartoon of 1754. The flag faded after the Revolution and returned in the twentieth century as a symbol of individualism and resistance to government power. ### The Red Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-red-flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The red flag is exactly what it sounds like: a plain rectangle of red cloth, with no device, text, or fixed proportions. It is the oldest and most widely used emblem of socialism, communism, and the labour movement, carried at May Day marches, strikes, and party congresses on every continent. The colour is usually read as the blood of workers killed in struggle. Several national flags, including those of China and Vietnam, are built on it, and the anthem "The Red Flag" is still sung at British Labour Party conferences. History: Red flags meant danger or defiance long before they meant socialism: medieval warships flew red streamers to signal no quarter, and revolutionary France used a red flag as the legal signal of martial law. Its political meaning flipped on July 17, 1791, when the National Guard fired on a republican crowd at the Champ de Mars in Paris under that martial-law flag. Radicals took up the red flag afterwards in honour of the dead, declaring it the martial law of the people. Workers flew it at the Merthyr Rising in Wales in 1831 and on the Paris barricades of 1832 and 1848, and in 1871 the Paris Commune made it the official flag of a government for the first time. Socialist and labour parties worldwide carried it from the 1880s onward, and the Soviet Union placed it at the centre of a state flag in 1923. ## Religious Symbols ### The Buddhist Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-buddhist-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Buddhist flag has six vertical bands. Five carry a single color each: blue, yellow, red, white, and orange. The sixth, at the fly, stacks all five colors in horizontal segments. The colors stand for the six-hued aura said to have shone from the Buddha at his enlightenment: blue for compassion, yellow for the Middle Way, red for the blessings of practice, white for the purity of the Dhamma, and orange for wisdom. The composite stripe is the aura as a whole. Temples and lay Buddhists fly it worldwide, especially at Vesak. History: A committee of Sinhalese Buddhists in Colombo, chaired by Ven. Hikkaduwe Sri Sumangala Thera, designed the flag in 1885 during the Buddhist revival in British Ceylon. The design was published in the newspaper Sarasavi Sandaresa on 17 April 1885 and first hoisted publicly at the Dipaduttamaramaya temple in Kotahena that Vesak, the first celebrated as a public holiday under British rule. Sources disagree on whether that day fell on 28 April or 28 May. The original flag was a long streamer; Henry Steel Olcott, the American co-founder of the Theosophical Society and an honorary committee member, suggested in 1886 that it be cut to the proportions of a national flag. The World Fellowship of Buddhists adopted it as the international Buddhist flag at its inaugural conference in Colombo in 1950. ### The Christian Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-christian-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Christian flag is a white field with a blue canton in the upper hoist, and inside the canton a red Latin cross. The white stands for purity and peace, the blue for heaven, faithfulness, and the waters of baptism, and the red for the blood of Christ. There are no official specifications for proportions or shades. Protestant congregations fly it outside churches and display it in sanctuaries, often opposite a national flag, across North America, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. History: The flag was conceived on 26 September 1897 at Brighton Chapel on Coney Island, New York, when Sunday school superintendent Charles C. Overton improvised a speech after a scheduled speaker failed to show, and asked his students what a flag of Christianity might look like. The idea stayed with him. In 1907 Overton worked with Ralph Diffendorfer, secretary of the Methodist Young People's Missionary Movement, to fix the design and promote it. The two never copyrighted it, dedicating it instead to all of Christendom. Methodist minister Lynn Harold Hough wrote a pledge to the flag in 1908, and the Federal Council of Churches formally adopted the flag on 23 January 1942. Missionaries carried it worldwide through the twentieth century. ### The Nishan Sahib URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nishan-sahib Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nishan_Sahib Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Nishan Sahib is the triangular flag flown outside every Sikh gurdwara, usually from a tall pole wrapped in cloth of the same color. The flag carries the khanda emblem: a double-edged sword at the center, a circular chakkar around it, and two crossed single-edged kirpans beneath, together standing for miri and piri, temporal and spiritual authority. For decades the flag was most often saffron with a navy emblem; since a 2024 Akal Takht ruling, gurdwaras are directed to use basanti (xanthic yellow) or surmai (navy blue), the two colors prescribed by the Sikh code of conduct. History: The tradition goes back to the sixth Guru, Hargobind, who raised a flag at the Akal Takht in Amritsar in the early seventeenth century as an assertion of Sikh sovereignty after the martyrdom of his father, Guru Arjan. The flag, earlier called the Jhanda Sahib, changed color and emblem over the centuries; the khanda design now standard dates from the early twentieth century. The Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of conduct issued in 1945, requires every gurdwara to fly a Nishan Sahib and prescribes basanti or surmai cloth. Saffron (kesri) nonetheless became the dominant color in practice. On 15 July 2024 the Akal Takht ruled that only the two prescribed colors are acceptable, and the SGPC began replacing saffron flags at the Golden Temple complex that August. ## Humanitarian Organizations ### The Flag of The Red Crescent URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-red-crescent Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Red Crescent is a red crescent moon on a white field, the second protective emblem of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. It carries exactly the same legal force as the red cross: in wartime it marks medical personnel, hospitals and ambulances as off-limits to attack, and in peacetime it identifies the national societies that use it. More than 30 national societies, most of them in Muslim-majority countries, fly the crescent instead of the cross, from Turkey and Egypt to Pakistan, Malaysia and Bangladesh. History: The red crescent appeared on the battlefield before it appeared in any treaty. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1876-1878, the Ottoman Empire declared that its medical services would use a red crescent on white instead of the red cross, arguing that the cross alienated Muslim soldiers, while still promising to respect the red cross flown by the other side. The emblem then existed in legal limbo for half a century. The Diplomatic Conference of 1929 formally recognized it in the revised Geneva Convention, alongside Persia's red lion and sun, though recognition was limited to the countries already using them. The 1949 Geneva Conventions carried the crescent forward, and in 1986 the movement renamed itself the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, putting the crescent in the organization's own name. ### The Flag of The Red Cross URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-red-cross Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement Last updated: 2026-04-08 The flag of the Red Cross is a red cross on a white background. The cross is straight-edged, centered, and large enough to fill much of the flag. White stands for peace and purity, the red cross for aid and medical care, and the design as a whole for neutrality, impartiality and humanitarian assistance. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement flies it on humanitarian missions, at medical facilities and at events, to mark protection and care for anyone, of any nationality. History: The flag of the Red Cross was officially adopted in 1864 following the establishment of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The emblem was chosen as the inverse of the Swiss flag (a white cross on a red background) as a tribute to Switzerland, where the first Geneva Convention was held and the Red Cross was founded. The founding idea, proposed by Henry Dunant, was to create an organization that would provide care to the wounded soldiers in wartime, without discrimination. The emblem's neutrality and simplicity were designed to ensure that it could be recognized by all parties in conflict, thus ensuring the safety of medical personnel and facilities. The flag now reads as humanitarian aid and protection in any language. Its design and use are protected by international law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, which exist to prevent misuse and keep the emblem meaningful. ### The Flag of The Red Crystal URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-red-crystal Last updated: 2026-08-06 The flag of the Red Crystal is a red square frame standing on one corner, centered on a white field. It is the third protective emblem of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, created in 2005 by Additional Protocol III to the Geneva Conventions and carrying the same legal force as the red cross and red crescent. The design was deliberately stripped of any religious, political or national meaning. The frame is hollow for a reason: in certain uses a national society may display its own emblem inside it, which is how Israel's Magen David Adom finally joined the movement. History: The red crystal exists because of a gap in the Geneva system that stayed open for more than fifty years. Israel's national society, Magen David Adom, had used a red Star of David since 1930, but the 1949 Diplomatic Conference declined to recognize it, and MDA would not adopt the cross or the crescent. Unable to use a recognized emblem, it remained outside the International Federation for decades. After years of negotiation led by Switzerland, a diplomatic conference in Geneva adopted Additional Protocol III on 8 December 2005, creating a neutral third emblem by a vote of 98 to 27 with 10 abstentions. The protocol entered into force on 14 January 2007. In June 2006 the movement admitted Magen David Adom and the Palestine Red Crescent Society together. ## Environmental Organizations ### The Earth Day Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/earth-day-flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Earth Day flag is a photograph of the planet centered on a dark blue field, the blue standing for space. The current version uses the Blue Marble, the image of the full Earth taken by the Apollo 17 crew on 7 December 1972, showing Africa, Arabia, and Antarctica under swirls of cloud. Peace activist John McConnell created the flag in 1969, before that photograph existed, using an earlier Apollo image. It flies at Earth Day observances, environmental events, and anywhere someone wants a flag for the planet rather than a country. History: John McConnell, a New York peace activist, made the first Earth flag in 1969, debuting it at a Moon Watch gathering in Central Park on 20 July 1969 as Apollo 11 landed. Early versions used a NASA Apollo photograph from May 1969, and some simplified the planet to white cloud outlines on a light blue disc. McConnell proposed a day honoring the Earth at a 1969 UNESCO conference in San Francisco; the city issued a proclamation and the first Earth Day was celebrated on 21 March 1970, the vernal equinox, with McConnell's flags flying. After Apollo 17 returned the Blue Marble photograph in December 1972, McConnell updated the flag around 1973 to carry it. A 2001 federal court ruling held the design too unoriginal to copyright, since the NASA photo is public domain. ### The Ecology Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/ecology-flag Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecology_Flag Last updated: 2026-08-06 The ecology flag is the American flag rebuilt in green and white: thirteen alternating green and white stripes, with a green canton where the stars would be. In place of the fifty stars sits a single symbol resembling the Greek letter theta, formed by merging a lowercase "e" and "o," for environment and organism. The green is unspoiled land and the white clean air. The flag emerged around the first Earth Day in 1970 and still turns up at environmental demonstrations, on patches, and on pins. History: The symbol came first. Cartoonist Ron Cobb published it in the Los Angeles Free Press on 25 October 1969, superimposing the letters "e" (environment) and "o" (organism) into a theta-like mark, and placed it in the public domain. For the 21 April 1970 issue of Look magazine, published the day before the first April 22 Earth Day, senior editor Jack Shepherd set the symbol into a flag patterned on the Stars and Stripes, with green and white stripes and the theta in the canton. The first physical flag hung from the Look Building in New York before traveling to Washington for the Earth Day march. Students across the country sewed their own versions in the early 1970s. A separate green-striped ecology flag had been made by San Francisco's Paramount Flag Company as early as 1967. ## Sports Organizations ### The Flag of The Paralympics URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-paralympics Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralympic_Games Last updated: 2026-08-06 The Paralympic flag is a white field carrying the agitos: three curved strokes in red, blue and green sweeping around a central point. The name comes from the Latin agito, "I move," and the mark is meant to read as motion, athletes in flight rather than a static badge. Red, blue and green were chosen because they are the colors most widely used in national flags. The International Paralympic Committee flies the flag at the Paralympic Games, where it is raised at the opening ceremony and handed from host city to host city at the close. History: The Paralympic flag has been redesigned more often than almost any comparable sporting symbol. The first version appeared at the Seoul 1988 Games: five tae-geuks, a traditional Korean comma-like motif, in the Olympic ring colors and a ring-like arrangement. The International Olympic Committee objected that it sat too close to its own five rings, so the young International Paralympic Committee cut the design down to three tae-geuks, formally launched in 1994 under the motto "Mind, Body, Spirit." In 2003 the IPC hired the agency Scholz and Friends to modernize the mark, and the resulting agitos debuted at the Athens 2004 closing ceremony with a new motto, "Spirit in Motion." A 2019 refresh redrew the agitos with cleaner geometry and recolored them to match the Pantone shades of the Olympic rings. ### The Olympic Flag URL: https://www.flagdb.com/the-olympics Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games Last updated: 2026-04-19 The Olympic flag is five interlocking rings on a white background, colored blue, yellow, black, green and red from left to right. The rings stand for the five inhabited continents: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. The white background is for peace and unity. The whole design is meant to say that the Games bring together athletes from everywhere, whatever their nationality, race or religion. History: Baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, designed the Olympic flag in 1913. It was first flown at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. He wanted a single image that would carry the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect. The five rings stand for the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from around the world at the Games. The colors were chosen because at least one of them, or the white of the background, appears on the flag of every country in the world. It is now among the most widely recognized symbols anywhere. ## Further reading \- [Olympic Rings - olympics.com](https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-rings "https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-rings") \- [Olympic Symbols - wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_symbols") ## Military Alliances ### The Flag of NATO URL: https://www.flagdb.com/nato Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO Last updated: 2026-04-07 The flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a dark blue field for the Atlantic Ocean, with a white compass rose at the center pointing to the four cardinal directions. A white circle runs around the compass rose for unity among the member states. Together they stand for the alliance's aim of keeping the peace across the North Atlantic area and beyond. History: NATO adopted its flag on October 14, 1953, four years after the organization was founded on April 4, 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War. The alliance was set up to counter the threat from the Soviet Union and to secure peace in Europe through collective defense. The flag was designed to be simple and to belong to no single member. As NATO took in new members from across Europe and beyond, the flag stayed as it was. ## Organizations ### The International Atomic Energy Agency URL: https://www.flagdb.com/international-atomic-energy-agency Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Energy_Agency Last updated: 2026-04-18 The flag of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) carries the agency's emblem in white on a light blue field, the same blue used by the United Nations. The emblem is a stylized atom framed by two olive branches. The agency's job is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to keep nuclear material out of military hands. History: The IAEA was created by its own statute, approved on 23 October 1956 and in force from 29 July 1957, so it is autonomous rather than a United Nations agency. An early version of the atom emblem was in use on agency letterhead by July 1957, and the design was reworked over the following years before the Board of Governors formally adopted the finished version on 1 April 1960. It was meant to stand for the peaceful use of nuclear science and for the global reach of the agency's mandate. The flag flies at official events, at the headquarters in Vienna, Austria, and at facilities around the world where the agency runs inspections, training, and assistance programmes.