---
title: "Flag of Latvia: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Latvia flag stands for, its official 1:2 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted. Plus the flags it gets mistaken for."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/latvia/
site: "At One Place"
---

# 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

*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.*

- **Crimson** (#9E3039) — A dark carmine, known internationally as Latvian red
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — The narrow central band

- **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

- [Latvia](https://atoneplace.net/country/latvia/)
- [The flag of Austria](https://atoneplace.net/flag/austria/)
- [Every flag with crimson in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/crimson/)
- [The flag of Japan](https://atoneplace.net/flag/japan/)
- [The flag of Nepal](https://atoneplace.net/flag/nepal/)
- [The flag of Sri Lanka](https://atoneplace.net/flag/sri-lanka/)
- [The flag of Eswatini](https://atoneplace.net/flag/eswatini/)

## Sources

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