The flag of Belgium
The colours are read straight off the Brabant coat of arms — a gold lion with red claws on a black field — which is why the order looks arbitrary until you see the shield. The 13:15 ratio is the squarest of any national flag other than the two that are actually square, and it is widely ignored: most Belgian flags sold are 2:3. The 1831 constitution specified the bands as vertical, reversing the horizontal arrangement used during the 1830 revolution. Germany uses the same three colours horizontally, which is the confusion worth naming.
Flags it gets confused with
Drawn at each flag’s own official ratio, which is itself the difference in some of these pairs.
| Flag | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Germany | Germany's bands are horizontal and its ratio is 3:5; the third colour is gold rather than yellow. |
What the colours mean
- Black
#000000From the shield of the Duchy of Brabant - Yellow
#FAE042The Brabant lion - Red
#ED2939The lion's claws and tongue
Flag laws usually specify a Pantone chip, a CMYK mix or just a colour name. Converting any of those to sRGB is lossy, which is why published hex values disagree.
- Ratio
- 13:15
- Current design adopted
- 1831
- Colours
- black, yellow, red
Common questions
- What does the flag of Belgium look like?
- Three equal vertical bands of black, yellow and red, on a nearly square flag.
- What do the colours of the Belgium flag mean?
- Black: from the shield of the Duchy of Brabant. Yellow: the Brabant lion. Red: the lion's claws and tongue.
- How do you tell the Belgium flag from the Germany one?
- Germany's bands are horizontal and its ratio is 3:5; the third colour is gold rather than yellow.
- When was the Belgium flag adopted?
- The current design dates from 1831, and its official ratio is 13:15.
Related pages
- Belgium Capital, area, population and currency
- The flag of Germany Routinely mistaken for this one
- Every flag with black in it
- The flag of South Korea Ratio 2:3
- The flag of South Africa Ratio 2:3
- The flag of Jamaica Ratio 1:2
- The flag of Egypt Ratio 2:3
- The flag of Palestine Ratio 1:2
- The flag of United Arab Emirates Ratio 1:2
- The flag of Mozambique Ratio 2:3
- The flag of Kenya Ratio 2:3
Sources
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)