---
title: "Flag of Maldives: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Maldives flag stands for, its official 2:3 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/maldives/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Maldives

**The flag of Maldives: A red field with a large green rectangle at the centre bearing a white crescent, its points facing the fly.**

Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1965

The crescent opens toward the fly rather than the hoist, which is the reverse of most crescent flags and is specified. The green panel and crescent were added in the early twentieth century to a plain red flag; the black-and-white hoist stripe of the older version was dropped at independence in 1965. The plain red flag before that is one of the oldest recorded in the Indian Ocean. The proportion of the green rectangle to the field is fixed by law and is often drawn too large in reproductions.

## 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.*

- **Red** (#D21034) — The blood of national heroes
- **Green** (#007E3A) — Peace, prosperity, and the coconut palm
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — The crescent — Islam

- **Ratio:** 2:3
- **Current design adopted:** 1965
- **Colours:** red, green, white

## Common questions

### What does the flag of Maldives look like?

A red field with a large green rectangle at the centre bearing a white crescent, its points facing the fly.

### What do the colours of the Maldives flag mean?

Red: the blood of national heroes. Green: peace, prosperity, and the coconut palm. White: the crescent — Islam.

### When was the Maldives flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1965, and its official ratio is 2:3.

## Related pages

- [Maldives](https://atoneplace.net/country/maldives/)
- [Every flag with red in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/red/)
- [The flag of United States](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-states/)
- [The flag of United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-kingdom/)
- [The flag of Canada](https://atoneplace.net/flag/canada/)
- [The flag of France](https://atoneplace.net/flag/france/)
- [The flag of China](https://atoneplace.net/flag/china/)
- [The flag of Germany](https://atoneplace.net/flag/germany/)
- [The flag of Russia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/russia/)
- [The flag of Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)

## Sources

- The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/) [Public domain (US Government)]