Flag of Bolivia

What the flag of Bolivia looks like

The flag of Bolivia has three horizontal stripes of equal height: red at the top, yellow in the middle and green at the bottom. The proportions are 15:22, which is slightly narrower than 2:3.

There are two official versions. The civil flag, used by the public, is the plain tricolor. The state flag, used by the government and on official buildings, has the coat of arms in the center of the yellow stripe.

The coat of arms is an oval. It shows the mountain of Potosí (Cerro Rico) with a sun rising behind it, a green tree, an alpaca and a wheat sheaf in the center. Around the oval are crossed flags and rifles, a cannon, an axe topped by a red Phrygian cap, and laurel and olive branches. A condor with spread wings sits above, and ten stars sit along the top of the oval.

See how the colors look in the Bolivia flag emoji or download an image from the download page.

Bolivia flag meaning and symbolism

The usual explanation of the colors is that red stands for the courage of the army and the blood spilled in the fight for independence, yellow stands for the country's mineral wealth, and green stands for the fertility of the land and its natural resources. Some sources give a different set of meanings, with yellow as hope or justice, so these are traditional readings rather than official ones.

In the coat of arms, the Potosí mountain refers to the silver mines that gave the country much of its wealth. The alpaca and the wheat stand for the fauna and the farming of the highlands, and the condor represents the Andes. The ten stars stand for the nine departments of Bolivia and the lost coastal department of Litoral, which was taken by Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879-84).

History of the Bolivian flag

Bolivia declared independence from Spain in 1825 and was named after Simón Bolívar. The first flags of the new republic used the same colors, but they were arranged differently and kept changing during the first decades of the republic's life.

The present arrangement of red, yellow and green stripes was adopted in 1851, under President Manuel Isidoro Belzu. The colors were chosen as symbols of the nation and have been kept since. The coat of arms has been redrawn a number of times.

In 2009, a new constitution recognized the Wiphala as a national symbol next to the tricolor, which gave the country two official flags. This reflects the country's large Indigenous population, and the 2009 constitution describes Bolivia as a plurinational state.

The Wiphala and why Bolivia has two flags

The Wiphala is a square flag made of a grid of 49 small squares in seven colors, laid out in diagonal rows. It has long been used by the Indigenous peoples of the Andes, such as the Aymara and the Quechua. It is not a replacement for the red, yellow and green flag. Both appear at official events, and the Wiphala is flown next to the tricolor.

The Wiphala has also been a source of political debate. In the political crisis of November 2019, some Wiphalas were burned and removed from police uniforms, which angered many Indigenous Bolivians. Supporters see it as a sign of Indigenous inclusion, while others have argued that the tricolor is the true national flag.