---
title: "Flag of Costa Rica: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Costa Rica flag stands for, its official 3:5 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/costa-rica/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Costa Rica

**The flag of Costa Rica: Five horizontal stripes — blue, white, a double-height red, white, blue — with the coat of arms in a white oval toward the hoist on the state version.**

Ratio 3:5 · current design adopted 1906

The red stripe was added in 1848 in explicit tribute to the French revolutionary tricolour, by the president's wife, Pacífica Fernández — before that Costa Rica flew the plain Central American blue-white-blue. Thailand's flag is the same five-stripe arrangement with the red and blue exchanged, and the two are genuinely hard to tell apart at a glance. The state flag carries an oval coat of arms showing three volcanoes and two ships; the civil flag does not. Seven stars were added to that coat of arms in 1906 for the seven provinces.

## Flags it gets confused with

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Thailand | The middle and outer colours are swapped: Thailand is red-white-blue-white-red with a double-height blue centre. |

## What the colours mean

*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.*

- **Blue** (#002B7F) — The sky, opportunity, perseverance and eternity
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Peace, wisdom and happiness
- **Red** (#CE1126) — The warmth of the people and the blood shed for freedom

- **Ratio:** 3:5
- **Current design adopted:** 1906
- **Colours:** blue, white, red

## Common questions

### What does the flag of Costa Rica look like?

Five horizontal stripes — blue, white, a double-height red, white, blue — with the coat of arms in a white oval toward the hoist on the state version.

### What do the colours of the Costa Rica flag mean?

Blue: the sky, opportunity, perseverance and eternity. White: peace, wisdom and happiness. Red: the warmth of the people and the blood shed for freedom.

### How do you tell the Costa Rica flag from the Thailand one?

The middle and outer colours are swapped: Thailand is red-white-blue-white-red with a double-height blue centre.

### When was the Costa Rica flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1906, and its official ratio is 3:5.

## Related pages

- [Costa Rica](https://atoneplace.net/country/costa-rica/)
- [The flag of Thailand](https://atoneplace.net/flag/thailand/)
- [Every flag with blue in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/blue/)
- [The flag of United States](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-states/)
- [The flag of India](https://atoneplace.net/flag/india/)
- [The flag of United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-kingdom/)
- [The flag of France](https://atoneplace.net/flag/france/)
- [The flag of Russia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/russia/)
- [The flag of Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/flag/brazil/)
- [The flag of Australia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/australia/)
- [The flag of South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-korea/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]