Flags of the 50 U.S. states

Why do so many state flags look alike?

Flag designers have a nickname for the most common design: the seal on a bedsheet. Over 20 states place their state seal on a solid blue or other single-color field, which makes them hard to tell apart from a distance. Most were adopted in the late 1800s and early 1900s, often when states needed a banner for military units or an exhibition and reused the seal they already had.

Flag experts argue that a good flag should be simple enough for a child to draw from memory, use few colors, avoid lettering, and be distinctive. By that standard, designs such as New Mexico's red Zia sun on yellow, Maryland's heraldic pattern, Colorado's C and Alaska's Big Dipper are praised. Ohio is the only state whose flag is not a rectangle, as it has a swallowtail with a blue triangle and stars.

Recent redesigns: Mississippi, Utah and Minnesota

Mississippi retired its flag in 2020 after a long debate over its design. Voters picked a replacement that year: a white magnolia ringed by stars on a field of red, blue and gold, with the words In God We Trust.

Utah adopted a new flag in 2024 built around the beehive, the state symbol of industry, replacing its seal on a blue field. Minnesota also adopted a new design in 2024, replacing a seal-based flag first used in 1957 and criticized for its imagery of a settler and a Native American horseman. The new flag has a dark blue shape of the state and an eight-pointed star. These changes follow a wider push among flag designers and voters for simpler, more recognizable state flags, and other states have discussed redesigns too. Each state page shows the current design and its history.

Looking for a quiz? Try the US state flags quiz, or compare with the national flag of the United States, which has used 50 stars since 1960.