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The flag of Guyana

The flag of Guyana
A green field with a red triangle at the hoist edged in black, and a longer yellow arrowhead triangle edged in white pointing to the fly.
Ratio 3:5 · current design adopted 1966

The Golden Arrowhead was designed by Whitney Smith, the American scholar who coined the word "vexillology" and founded the discipline — making it one of the very few national flags designed by a professional flag researcher. Smith's original submission had no black or white; the College of Arms in London added the two fimbriations to separate the colours, which is standard heraldic practice and improved the design. It was raised at independence in May 1966. The arrowhead shape is unusual enough that the flag is instantly identifiable at any size.

What the colours mean

  • Green #009E49 Forests and agriculture
  • Yellow #FCD116 Mineral wealth
  • Red #CE1126 The zeal and dynamism of nation-building
  • Black #000000 Endurance
  • White #FFFFFF The rivers and waters of the country

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
3:5
Current design adopted
1966
Colours
green, yellow, red, black, white

Common questions

What does the flag of Guyana look like?
A green field with a red triangle at the hoist edged in black, and a longer yellow arrowhead triangle edged in white pointing to the fly.
What do the colours of the Guyana flag mean?
Green: forests and agriculture. Yellow: mineral wealth. Red: the zeal and dynamism of nation-building. Black: endurance. White: the rivers and waters of the country.
When was the Guyana flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1966, and its official ratio is 3:5.

Related pages

Sources

  1. The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (Public domain (US Government))

How these figures are compiled and checked