Flag of Vietnam

What the flag means

• 🔴Red field — revolution and bloodshed
• ⭐Yellow star (5 points) — workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals and youth united

Design set by: ⁨Hiến pháp nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam (2013), Điều 13, khoản 1⁩ · Adopted 1955

Highlights

• 🍜 Pho and fresh, light cooking
• 🏞️ The beauty of Ha Long Bay
• ☕ Bold Vietnamese coffee
• 👘 The elegant ao dai
• 🏍️ Buzzing, energetic street life

Quick facts

Region

Asia · South-Eastern Asia

Population

101,598,527 people (2025)

Area

331,212 km²

Capital

Hanoi

Languages

Vietnamese, English

Currency

Vietnamese đồng (VND)

Organizations

United Nations, ASEAN

Neighboring countries

• Cambodia
• China
• Laos

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.

• 

  Standard of the Nguyễn Dynasty

  Vietnam (Nguyễn dynasty) · Flag or standard

  OriginThe Nguyễn dynasty was the last to rule Vietnam, and this was the standard flown for its emperors from 1890 to 1920, through the reigns of Thành Thái, Duy Tân and Khải Định. The three held court at Huế while France governed the country as a protectorate, so the flag marked a throne that kept its ceremony and no longer its power. In Vietnamese it is called the Long tinh kỳ, the “dragon-star flag”.

  DescriptionThe cloth is nothing but three horizontal bands: red at the top, red at the bottom, and a yellow band across the middle that is twice as deep as either red one. At the Nguyễn court yellow was the colour reserved for the emperor, so the broad central band is the sovereign himself, held between two bands of red, the colour of the south and of fire in the East Asian five-element scheme. The dragon of the name never appears on the cloth: it is the emperor standing inside the yellow.

  Image source: Wikimedia Commons — Standard of the Nguyen Dynasty (1890 - 1920).svg