Flag of Yemen

What the flag of Yemen looks like

The national flag of Yemen has three horizontal bands of equal height: red at the top, white in the middle and black at the bottom. The proportions are 2:3. There is no emblem, star or inscription, which makes it one of the plainest tricolors in the world.

Because it has no symbol, Yemen's flag is often confused with the flags of Egypt and Iraq, which use the same red, white and black stripes. The flag of Egypt has a golden eagle in the center, while Iraq's carries a green Arabic inscription in the white band. Yemen's flag is the one in the group with nothing at all on it. It also looks similar to the Syrian flag used until late 2024, which had two green stars on the white band.

If you need the flag for a project, the Yemen flag emoji and the Yemen flag download page supply the same design.

Yemen flag meaning and symbolism

Red, white and black are the Pan-Arab colors. They were taken from the Arab Liberation flag raised by the Egyptian revolution of 1952, and they spread to other Arab nations that wanted to show a shared identity.

The colors on the Yemeni flag are commonly explained as:

• Red: the blood shed by martyrs, and the unity and revolution that led to the modern state.
• White: purity and a bright future, and also peace.
• Black: the dark days of the past, in particular the period before the revolutions of the 20th century.

These meanings are traditional. Yemen's law describes the flag's design but does not set out an official meaning for each color, so you will find slightly different versions in different sources.

History of the Yemen flag

Modern Yemen was formed from two states, and until 1990 each of them had its own flag.

North Yemen was ruled by a kingdom under the Imams until a revolution in 1962 turned it into the Yemen Arab Republic. The republic adopted a red, white and black horizontal tricolor with a green five-pointed star in the center of the white band. The kingdom's own flag had been red with a sword and stars.

South Yemen was a group of British protectorates and the colony of Aden. After independence in November 1967, it used a flag with the same red, white and black stripes and a light blue triangle at the hoist with a red star. This was the flag of the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen, a socialist state.

North and South Yemen agreed to unite, and on 22 May 1990 the Republic of Yemen was proclaimed. Its new flag kept the Pan-Arab stripes that both states already used, and dropped the stars and the triangle. That choice avoided taking either state's symbol over the other. The flag has stayed the same since.

Does Yemen have two flags?

Today there is one national flag, the red, white and black tricolor. Two flags are only found in history, from 1962 to 1990, when North and South Yemen each had their own. The old South Yemen flag, with the blue triangle and red star, is still flown by some southern separatist groups, which is why it is seen in news images from Aden. It is not an official flag of the Republic of Yemen.

When the flag is hung vertically or reversed by mistake, the black band ends up on top, so it is worth checking that red is always at the top of a horizontal Yemeni flag. The same rule applies to Egypt and Iraq, whose flags have the same stripe order.