MEPX
Chapter 5 of 10All chapters
  1. 1The vocabulary
  2. 2Design principles
  3. 3Colours and their families
  4. 4Symbols
  5. 5Flags of Europe
  6. 6Flags of Asia
  7. 7Flags of Africa
  8. 8Flags of the Americas
  9. 9Flags of Oceania
  10. 10Beyond national flags

Chapter 5 of 10

Flags of Europe

Crosses and tricolours.

The Nordic cross

Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroes share an off-centre cross, with Denmark's claimed as the oldest continuously used national flag.

  • The Union Flag combines English, Scottish and Irish crosses.
  • Many tricolours descend from the French model.

Easily confused

Netherlands and Luxembourg differ in the shade of blue and ratio; Monaco and Indonesia differ only in proportion; Romania and Chad are near identical.