Flags with the Same Shape and Design

What a design family is

Flags are grouped here by construction rather than by appearance: the number and direction of the bands, whether there is a cross and where its arms sit, whether there is a canton, a hoist triangle, a diagonal band or a central emblem. Two flags in the same family are built the same way even when they share no colours at all.

This is the most useful index for identifying a flag you can picture but cannot name. Working from the structure — three vertical bands with something in the middle — narrows 313 flags to a handful in one step.

The families that dominate

• Horizontal and vertical tricolours, descended from the Dutch and French flags, together account for a large share of all national flags.
• Nordic crosses, all six of them derived from the Danish Dannebrog.
• British-style ensigns, which put a small flag in the canton and a badge in the fly.
• Plain fields with a central emblem, the most common construction for United States state flags.
• Hoist triangles, concentrated heavily in the Caribbean and in Africa.

For the history behind these groupings, see the flag facts collection.