What do the colours of the Haiti flag mean?

Blue: traditionally Haitians of African descent. Red: traditionally Haitians of mixed descent; the union of the two. White: the central panel bearing the arms.

How do you tell the Haiti flag from the Liechtenstein one?

Liechtenstein adds a gold crown in the upper hoist and has no central panel.

When was the Haiti flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1986, and its official ratio is 3:5.

The flag of Haiti

Two equal horizontal bands, blue over red, with a white panel at the centre bearing the coat of arms.

Ratio 3:5 · current design adopted 1986

The traditional account has Jean-Jacques Dessalines tearing the white band out of the French tricolour in 1803 and having the remaining blue and red sewn together — a founding gesture as literal as any flag has. That left Haiti with a bicolour identical to Liechtenstein's, which the two countries discovered at the 1936 Olympics; Liechtenstein added a crown and Haiti did not change. The flag was replaced by a black-and-red version under the Duvaliers and restored in 1986. The white panel with the arms appears on the state flag; the plain bicolour is the civil flag.

Flags it gets confused with

Flag	How to tell them apart
Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein adds a gold crown in the upper hoist and has no central panel.

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.

The symbols on it

What	What it stands for
Palm with liberty cap	Freedom
Cannons, drums and flags	Readiness to defend independence
L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE	"Unity makes strength"

Ratio: 3:5
Current design adopted: 1986
Colours: blue, red, white

Common questions

What does the flag of Haiti look like?: Two equal horizontal bands, blue over red, with a white panel at the centre bearing the coat of arms.
What do the colours of the Haiti flag mean?: Blue: traditionally Haitians of African descent. Red: traditionally Haitians of mixed descent; the union of the two. White: the central panel bearing the arms.
How do you tell the Haiti flag from the Liechtenstein one?: Liechtenstein adds a gold crown in the upper hoist and has no central panel.
When was the Haiti flag adopted?: The current design dates from 1986, and its official ratio is 3:5.

Haiti Capital, area, population and currency
The flag of Liechtenstein Routinely mistaken for this one
Every flag with blue in it
The flag of United States Ratio 10:19
The flag of India Ratio 2:3
The flag of United Kingdom Ratio 1:2
The flag of France Ratio 2:3
The flag of Russia Ratio 2:3
The flag of Brazil Ratio 7:10
The flag of Australia Ratio 1:2
The flag of South Korea Ratio 2:3

Sources

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

How these figures are compiled and checked