Flag of the United States
What the flag means
- 13 stripes — the original 13 colonies
- 50 stars — the 50 states
- Red, white and blue — valor, purity and justice
Design set by: 4 U.S.C. §§ 1–2; Executive Order 10834 of August 21, 1959 · Adopted 1960
Highlights
- 🗽 Statue of Liberty and diversity
- 🎬 Hollywood movies and shows
- 🏞️ Grand Canyon and national parks
- 🚀 Leader in space and tech
- 🎸 Home of jazz and hip-hop
Quick facts
- Region
- Americas · North America
- Population
- 341,784,857 people (2025)
- Area
- 9,372,610 km²
- Capital
- Washington D.C.
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Currency
- United States dollar (USD)
- Organizations
- United Nations, NATO, OECD
Neighboring countries
Land neighbors, approximated from simplified map outlines.
Symbols in History (1)
Coats of arms and emblems whose historic seat lies within this country’s present-day territory.
Royal Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi
OriginThe Kingdom of Hawaiʻi adopted these arms in 1845, in the reign of Kamehameha III, and kept them until the monarchy ended in 1893. They follow the European heraldic frame — shield, crown, supporters, motto scroll — but fill it with Hawaiian regalia, and the two chiefs holding the shield are traditionally identified as Kameʻeiamoku and Kamanawa, the twin counsellors of Kamehameha I. The picture here is a modern redrawing of that design.
DescriptionThe shield is quartered: the upper left and lower right carry the red, white and blue stripes of the Hawaiian flag, while the other two quarters show, on gold, a slender staff topped by a white ball — the puloʻuloʻu, set up to mark ground that was sacred and forbidden. Over the middle lies a small green shield bearing a gold staff whose head opens out into a wide fan, with two leaf-bladed spears crossed behind it. Gold scrollwork frames the shield; above it rests a gold crown lined in red, with a blue orb and a small cross at its peak, and red and white drapery falls behind. On each side stands a barefoot chief in a feathered helmet and red cloak, one holding a long plain staff, the other a pole topped with a tall plume of yellow feathers. The red ribbon below reads 'UA MAU KE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO' — the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness — words still used as the motto of Hawaiʻi today.
State & regional flags (56)
Alabama
A crimson saltire — two broad diagonal bars crossing corner to corner — is the whole design, laid on plain white with no seal or lettering at all.
Alaska
Eight gold stars rest on deep navy: seven form the ladle of the Big Dipper, while a larger one sits alone in the upper corner as the North Star.
American Samoa
This US territory flies dark blue behind a red-edged white triangle, on which a brown bald eagle grips a Samoan war club and a tasselled fly whisk.
Arizona
Thirteen red and gold rays fan out across the top like a setting sun, the lower half is navy, and one big copper-colored star straddles the middle.
Arkansas
On red sits a white diamond whose blue border is studded with 25 white stars; inside, the word ARKANSAS has one blue star above it and three below.
California
The California grizzly bear represents strength, the red star represents sovereignty (inspired by the Lone Star Flag of Texas), and the white field represents purity.
Colorado
Navy, white and navy stripes run behind a bold red letter C, and a solid golden disc fills the space inside the letter's curve.
Connecticut
Three grapevines heavy with purple bunches grow inside an ornate white shield on blue, above a curling ribbon lettered QUI TRANSTULIT SUSTINET.
Delaware
A tan diamond on slate blue holds a farmer and a musket-bearing militiaman beside a shield of wheat, corn and an ox, with DECEMBER 7, 1787 written below.
District of Columbia
Washington DC is not a state but the nation's capital district; its flag is plain white with two red bars and three red stars, taken from George Washington's coat of arms.
Florida
A broad red saltire joins the four corners of a white field, with the round state seal set where the arms cross. The seal holds a Seminole woman, a sabal palm, a paddle steamer and a burst of sunlight.
Georgia
Thirteen white stars circle a gold arch on three pillars marked Wisdom, Justice and Moderation, with a sword-bearing soldier below; red-white-red stripes fill the fly.
Guam
Guam is a US territory, not a state. Its deep-blue flag is edged all round in red, and in the centre a red-rimmed almond shape frames a leaning coconut palm, a sandy beach and an outrigger sailing canoe, with GUAM lettered in red across the sky.
Hawaii
Features the British Union Jack symbolizing historical ties, and eight horizontal stripes representing the unity of Hawaii's eight main islands.
Idaho
Against navy, a woman holding scales faces a miner with pick and shovel across a mountain-and-river shield, an elk head above; a red banner reads STATE OF IDAHO.
Illinois
A bald eagle stands on a boulder dated 1818 and 1868, gripping a stars-and-stripes shield and a red ribbon reading State Sovereignty, National Union above the word ILLINOIS.
Indiana
A gold torch blazes on navy, its rays reaching outward to a ring of stars; the large star crowning the flame stands for Indiana, nineteenth of the nineteen stars shown.
Iowa
Blue, white and red vertical bands; across the white one an eagle trails a streamer reading "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain", with IOWA in red beneath.
Kansas
A sunflower on a blue-and-gold twisted bar crowns this navy flag; the seal under it shows a farmer plowing behind horses, covered wagons, bison and a river steamboat beneath a rising sun, with KANSAS in gold.
Kentucky
On navy, a buckskin frontiersman and a suited statesman clasp hands inside a white circle reading UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL, above sprays of gold goldenrod.
Louisiana
A mother pelican spreads her wings over three chicks in a woven nest, three red drops on her breast, above a white ribbon reading UNION, JUSTICE, CONFIDENCE.
Maine
Maine's arms fill the navy field: pine tree and a resting moose on the shield, a farmer with a scythe and a sailor with an anchor beside it, DIRIGO on a red banner above.
Maryland
Quartered like a medieval banner: gold-and-black diagonal bars fill two quarters, and a red-and-white cross with clover-shaped tips fills the other two.
Massachusetts
A plain white field, so the arms carry it all: a blue shield with a gold Native figure holding a bow, a white star beside him, and an arm gripping a sword above.
Michigan
A bald eagle under a red E PLURIBUS UNUM banner tops a blue shield lettered TUEBOR, showing a man on a sunrise lakeshore, with an elk and a moose rearing at its sides.
Minnesota
At the hoist a dark navy panel carries one white eight-pointed star, and its fly edge is notched, so the broad light-blue field beyond comes to a single point like an arrowhead pushing into the navy.
Mississippi
Red and gold bands frame a navy centre where a white magnolia blossom opens, ringed by white stars with one gold star at the top and IN GOD WE TRUST curving below.
Missouri
Red, white and blue stripes carry a ring of 24 white stars around two brown grizzly bears gripping a shield of crescent, bear and eagle.
Montana
Gold letters spell MONTANA across a dark blue field, above a round seal of a waterfall, snowy peaks and a rising sun; a plough rests on the grass, with the motto Oro y Plata on a ribbon along the bottom.
Nebraska
On deep blue, a gold seal shows a blacksmith swinging his hammer at an anvil, a steam train and river boat behind him, under the words Equality Before the Law.
Nevada
Up in the hoist corner of a plain cobalt field, a white star sits over the word NEVADA, wrapped in yellow-flowered sagebrush under a gold Battle Born scroll.
New Hampshire
A wooden sailing frigate stands propped on the shipyard stocks by the shore, the sun rising behind her, framed by a laurel wreath studded with nine gold stars, with the date 1776 below on deep blue.
New Jersey
Unusually the field is buff, not blue: two women — one with a liberty cap on a staff, one with a cornucopia — hold a blue shield of three ploughs under a horse's head.
New Mexico
No seal at all here — just a red Zia sun on gold, a ring with four groups of four rays, taken from the pottery of Zia Pueblo.
New York
Features Liberty and Justice supporting the shield, with the Hudson River and rising sun in the center representing state progress and peace.
North Carolina
Gold N and C flank a white star on the navy hoist band, with scrolls dated May 20th 1775 and April 12th 1776; the rest is red above white.
North Dakota
A bald eagle spreads its wings on deep blue, holding an olive branch and arrows, a red E PLURIBUS UNUM scroll in its beak and thirteen gold stars overhead.
Northern Mariana Islands
Blue, with a white star set on a grey latte stone pillar, ringed by a woven mwar wreath of white shells and red and pink flowers.
Ohio
Not a rectangle at all, but a swallowtail burgee: seventeen white stars fill the blue triangle around a red disc in a white ring, the O of Ohio.
Oklahoma
On sky blue, an Osage buffalo-hide war shield hung with seven eagle feathers, crossed by a peace pipe and an olive branch, with OKLAHOMA lettered below.
Oregon
Gold on navy: STATE OF OREGON arcs above a star-ringed shield showing a covered wagon, an ox team and sailing ships, with the year 1859 beneath.
Pennsylvania
Two black horses rear beside a shield of ship, plough and three wheat sheaves, topped by a bald eagle, over a red ribbon: Virtue, Liberty and Independence.
Puerto Rico
Five stripes, three red and two white, run the full length, and a single white five-pointed star sits inside the blue triangle at the hoist.
Rhode Island
White, unusually, with a gold anchor at its heart, thirteen gold stars ringing it, and a blue ribbon below spelling the state motto HOPE.
South Carolina
An indigo field carries a tall white palmetto tree, with a white crescent set in the upper corner beside the flagpole.
South Dakota
Gold rays fan out from a seal of a farmer plowing, a steamboat and a smoking smelter, ringed on sky blue by "The Mount Rushmore State".
Tennessee
Three white stars huddle inside a blue disc on red — one each for East, Middle and West Tennessee — and a blue band edges the far side.
Texas
A navy vertical band takes the hoist third, and the rest divides white above and red below. The single white star in the navy band gives the Lone Star State its name.
United States Virgin Islands
White field: a golden eagle with the US shield on its chest holds a green branch and three blue arrows, one for each main island, between a blue V and I.
Utah
Snow-white peaks divide a navy sky from red rock below, and a gold beehive sits inside a hexagon with a small white star beneath it.
Vermont
Deep blue holds a landscape shield: a lone pine, three wheat sheaves and a red cow, a stag's head above and the motto "Freedom and Unity" below.
Virginia
Blue sits behind a white circle where Virtus, spear in hand, stands over a fallen tyrant whose crown has dropped away; below reads "Sic Semper Tyrannis".
Washington
Green all over, with George Washington's portrait on a pale blue disc inside a gold ring lettered "The Seal of the State of Washington, 1889".
West Virginia
A farmer with an axe and a miner with a pick flank a boulder dated June 20, 1863, wreathed in rhododendron on a white field edged in navy.
Wisconsin
Deep blue, lettered WISCONSIN above and 1848 below a gold shield of plow, pick, hammer-arm and anchor, held up by a sailor and a miner with a badger on top.
Wyoming
Red and white borders frame a navy field with a huge white bison; on its flank sits the seal — a woman holding an EQUAL RIGHTS banner between two men.
Data Sources
- What the flag means: 4 U.S.C. §§ 1–2; Executive Order 10834 of August 21, 1959
- Population: Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), latest available value
- Area: World countries in JSON, CSV, XML and YAML
- Organizations: Membership of Principal UN Organs
- Organizations: What is NATO? Member countries
- Organizations: Members and partners