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The flag of Latvia

The flag of Latvia
A dark carmine field crossed by a narrow white horizontal band that occupies the middle fifth.
Ratio 1:2 · current design adopted 1990

The band proportions are 2:1:2, not 1:1:1, which is the quickest way to tell it from Austria's flag. Latvian red is a specific brownish carmine that appears in a thirteenth-century chronicle describing a Latgalian banner, and it is dark enough that at dusk the flag reads almost brown. Latvia re-adopted the flag in February 1990, before the Soviet Union dissolved, making it one of the earliest such acts. The design has a decent claim to being the second-oldest national flag still in use, after the Dannebrog.

Flags it gets confused with

Flag How to tell them apart
Austria Austria's bands are equal and its red is a bright scarlet.

What the colours mean

  • Crimson #9E3039 A dark carmine, known internationally as Latvian red
  • White #FFFFFF The narrow central band

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
1:2
Current design adopted
1990
Colours
crimson, white

Common questions

What does the flag of Latvia look like?
A dark carmine field crossed by a narrow white horizontal band that occupies the middle fifth.
What do the colours of the Latvia flag mean?
Crimson: a dark carmine, known internationally as Latvian red. White: the narrow central band.
How do you tell the Latvia flag from the Austria one?
Austria's bands are equal and its red is a bright scarlet.
When was the Latvia flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1990, and its official ratio is 1:2.

Related pages

Sources

  1. Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked