Flag Proportions: What the Law Says and What It Doesn't
Reference books give a ratio for every flag, some of them oddly specific: 13:15 for Belgium, 6:7 for Niger. We went to the legal texts to see whether those numbers are really written down. Some are. Others aren't.
Set by a drawing in the law
Switzerland. Swiss law says outright that the flag shows a Swiss cross in a square field. Shape and proportions follow the pattern in its annex, drawn on a 32-unit grid, with each arm of the cross 6 wide and 7 long.[1]
At sea it's different. The same law makes an exception for the maritime act[1], and that act's annex marks the length as 1.5 times the height, which is 2:3.[2] The version of the maritime act we read is the one in force in 2013.
Vatican City. The current basis is the Fundamental Law of 31 July 2026, which replaced the law of 2023. Article 24 describes two fields divided vertically, yellow at the hoist and white beyond, and says the rest follows the model in Annex A.[3] There is no number anywhere. Measured roughly, the drawing is about square.[4] So the idea of a square Vatican flag rests on a picture, not on the words.
Numbers in the remarks on a bill
Denmark. After a very long life as custom, the Danish flag was named in statute in 2024 as the national flag of the Realm.[5] But the Act itself has no measurements. They're in the remarks on the bill: the cross is one-seventh of the height at the pole, the fields next to the hoist are square, and the outer fields are one and three-quarter times the inner ones.[6] Work that through and you get 28:37.
Not found in the law
Belgium. 13:15 is almost a Belgian trademark. Yet Article 193 of the Constitution says only that the Belgian nation adopts red, yellow and black. It gives no proportions and no layout.[7] What is cited for 13:15 is indirect, such as an undated 19th-century Foreign Ministry directive.[8] We found no official text.
Niger. The 2010 Constitution describes three equal horizontal bands and an orange disc in the white one, but no ratio.[9] We couldn't confirm this constitution's status since the 2023 coup, or what the 2025 charter says. 6:7 appears widely in reference works, yet flag researchers have found no legal text for it, and report other sources giving 2:3 and 7:8.[10]
Togo. The Constitution of 6 May 2024 doesn't describe the flag, leaving the state seal, arms and national emblem to ordinary law.[11] The ratio is variously given as 3:5, 2:3 and the golden section,[12] and we found no law that sets it.
The longest flag
Qatar. Guinness World Records lists Qatar as the longest national flag by official ratio, at 11:28.[13] Qatar's foreign ministry cites Law No. 14 of 2012, but its page gives no ratio.[14] We weren't able to obtain the law itself, so we report the number only as the official ratio Guinness records.
Summing up
| Country | Commonly given ratio | Where we found it |
|---|---|---|
| Switzerland | 1:1, 2:3 at sea | Statutes and annexes |
| Vatican City | 1:1 | No number; a drawing in the annex |
| Denmark | 28:37 | Remarks on the bill |
| Qatar | 11:28 | Guinness; law not read |
| Belgium | 13:15 | Not found in law |
| Niger | 6:7 | Not found in law |
| Togo | Varies by source | Not found in law |
Not finding a ratio in law doesn't make it wrong. Flags often settle by custom rather than statute, and we may have missed something. But the number in the reference book isn't always the number in the law. The flag images on this site follow these commonly used ratios too.
Sources
- Wappenschutzgesetz (WSchG), SR 232.21, Art. 3 und Anhang 2
- Seeschifffahrtsgesetz, SR 747.30, Art. 3 und Anhang (Stand 2013)
- Legge Fondamentale dello Stato della Città del Vaticano, 31 luglio 2026, art. 24
- Legge Fondamentale, allegato A
- Lov om flagning, LOV nr 1449 af 10/12/2024
- Forslag til Lov om flagning, 2024/1 LSF 21
- La Constitution belge, article 193
- Belgium
- Niger's Constitution of 2010 (revised 2017)
- Niger
- Constitution de la République togolaise du 6 mai 2024, article 3
- Togo
- Longest national flag (official aspect ratio)
- National Flag
Read next
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- Japan's Flag Became Law Only in 1999
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- Telling Look-Alike Flags Apart
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This page was drafted with AI (Claude). Its facts were checked against the sources listed below, and the site owner read it before publication. Found a mistake? Please write to us and include a source: Contact