20 Flag Facts That Will Win You the Next Flag Round
The only non-rectangular flag, the one with a rifle on it, and the four pairs everybody mixes up under pressure.
Everybody can do the first few. The United States, Japan, Canada — those are free points, and in a decent flag round they are over within a minute.
Then the round gets serious, and it turns out that knowing a flag is not the same as being able to pick it out of four that look almost exactly like it.
Here are twenty facts worth carrying into the next one. Some are pure trivia. Several are the difference between guessing and knowing.
Five flags that break the rules
Nearly every national flag is a rectangle with some combination of stripes on it. These five did not get the memo.
- Nepal — The only national flag that is not a rectangle — it is two stacked pennants.
- Switzerland — One of only two square national flags — the other is Vatican City.
- Jamaica — The only national flag that uses no red, white or blue.
- Libya — From 1977 to 2011 Libya flew a plain green flag with nothing on it at all.
- Mozambique — The only national flag with a modern rifle shown on it.
Five flags people mix up constantly
This is where flag rounds are won and lost. Two flags share a palette, somebody answers too quickly, and the point goes to the other team.
- Poland — White above red — flown upside down it becomes Indonesia’s flag.
- Indonesia — Red above white — Poland’s flag, turned the other way up.
- Monaco — The same two stripes as Indonesia — only the proportions differ.
- Romania — Nearly identical to Chad’s flag; the blue is a slightly different shade.
- Luxembourg — Almost identical to the Dutch flag, but the blue stripe is noticeably lighter.
Five flags with a story printed on them
Most flags are symbolic. These ones are nearly literal — once you know what you are looking at, you cannot unsee it.
- Cambodia — The only national flag that shows a building — the temple of Angkor Wat.
- Belize — The only national flag with human figures as its main feature.
- Dominican Republic — The only national flag with a Bible shown on it.
- Guatemala — The quetzal bird on the arms is a symbol of freedom — it dies in captivity.
- Brazil — The stars show the night sky over Rio on 15 November 1889.
Five details almost nobody notices
You have seen all five of these flags hundreds of times. You have probably never looked at any of them properly.
- France — The three stripes are not equal — blue is slightly narrower, so it looks even when flying.
- Bangladesh — The red circle sits slightly left of centre so it looks central when flying.
- Netherlands — The top stripe used to be orange, but the dye faded too quickly at sea.
- Saudi Arabia — The sword and script mean it is never flown at half mast.
- Philippines — Flown upside down on purpose when the country is at war.
The one habit that actually helps
Stop trying to memorise flags one at a time. Learn them in pairs instead — Poland and Indonesia, Monaco and Indonesia, Romania and Chad, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The pairs are where the mistakes live, so the pairs are what is worth the effort.
Then go and get them wrong a few times under pressure, which is the only part of this that really sticks. Guess the Flag gives you ten flags, four answers each and a clock that is also your score, so there is no time to think it through politely. Every answer tells you one thing about the flag you just looked at, right or wrong.
If you would rather test the bigger picture first, the geography quiz covers the countries behind the flags.