Flags of Europe

Colors and symbols on European flags

Two designs define Europe. The first is the tricolor, three equal bands in vertical or horizontal order: France, Italy, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and many more. The French tricolor, born in the Revolution, inspired a large share of them.

The second is the cross. Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland) all use an off-center cross, and the Faroe Islands and Åland Islands do too. Switzerland has a white cross on red, and the United Kingdom flag layers the crosses of Saint George, Saint Andrew and Saint Patrick.

The Pan-Slavic colors, red, white and blue, appear on Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. Many flags also carry coats of arms, such as Spain, Portugal, Albania (a double-headed eagle) and Malta (the George Cross).

Oldest and newest European flags

Denmark's Dannebrog, a white cross on red, is widely considered the oldest national flag still in use, with a tradition going back to the 13th century. The Dutch red, white and blue tricolor and the cross flags of the UK nations also have long histories.

The newest flags come from the 1990s and 2000s breakup of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. Kosovo adopted its flag in 2008, with a gold map of the country under six white stars. Montenegro (2004), North Macedonia (1995, a yellow sun on red) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (1998, a yellow triangle with white stars) all changed designs in this period. Germany's black, red and gold returned for good in 1949 in the west and 1990 for the whole country.

Look-alike flags people confuse

Some European flags are almost twins. Luxembourg and the Netherlands both use red, white and blue stripes, but Luxembourg's blue is light. Romania and Andorra are blue-yellow-red tricolors that are hard to tell apart without Andorra's coat of arms, and Chad in Africa matches them too. Ireland's green, white and orange looks like Italy's green, white and red, and Ivory Coast in Africa is Ireland's mirror image. Russia, Slovenia and Slovakia share the same stripes, separated by the emblems added to the last two. Poland is a white over red flag, which is simply Indonesia's upside down.

Denmark and Norway are often confused since both have crosses on a bright field, but Denmark's is white on red and Norway adds a blue inner cross. Squares are rare: only Switzerland and Vatican City have square national flags. For other regions, see Asia or the full list of flags of the world.