---
title: "Flag of El Salvador: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the El Salvador flag stands for, its official 189:335 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/el-salvador/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of El Salvador

**The flag of El Salvador: Three horizontal bands of blue, white and blue, with the coat of arms — a triangle enclosing five volcanoes, a liberty cap and a rainbow — on the white.**

Ratio 189:335 · current design adopted 1912

The ratio 189:335 is the strangest in the world and comes from a construction rule rather than a chosen proportion: the flag law defines the arms' triangle geometrically and the field follows from it. In practice almost everyone flies it at 3:5 and nobody notices. There is also a civil flag with the words DIOS UNIÓN LIBERTAD in gold instead of the arms. The country reverted to the federal blue-white-blue in 1912 after seventy years of a US-style stars-and-stripes design.

## 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** (#0F47AF) — The Pacific and the Caribbean
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Peace

## The symbols on it

| What | What it stands for |
| --- | --- |
| Five volcanoes | The five Central American states, rising from two oceans |
| Liberty cap on a staff | Freedom |
| DIOS UNIÓN LIBERTAD | "God, Union, Liberty" |

- **Ratio:** 189:335
- **Current design adopted:** 1912
- **Colours:** blue, white

## Common questions

### What does the flag of El Salvador look like?

Three horizontal bands of blue, white and blue, with the coat of arms — a triangle enclosing five volcanoes, a liberty cap and a rainbow — on the white.

### What do the colours of the El Salvador flag mean?

Blue: the Pacific and the Caribbean. White: peace.

### When was the El Salvador flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1912, and its official ratio is 189:335.

## Related pages

- [El Salvador](https://atoneplace.net/country/el-salvador/)
- [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

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]