---
title: "Flag of Mexico: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the Mexico flag stands for, its official 4:7 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted. Plus the flags it gets mistaken for."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/mexico/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of Mexico

**The flag of Mexico: Three equal vertical bands of green, white and red, with the national coat of arms — a golden eagle on a cactus, devouring a snake — centred on the white.**

Ratio 4:7 · current design adopted 1968

*[Flag drawn on the page: Mexico]*

The colour meanings were officially reinterpreted after the 1860s reform laws stripped the flag of its religious reading, so a Mexican textbook and a nineteenth-century source will give different answers and both are correct for their period. The eagle has been redrawn many times; the current version was fixed in 1968, in time for the Mexico City Olympics. The snake is a later addition to the founding legend — the earliest codices show the eagle on the cactus alone, sometimes holding the Nahuatl glyph for war rather than a serpent. At 4:7 the flag is noticeably longer than the Italian tricolour it is otherwise mistaken for.

## Flags it gets confused with

*[Flag drawn on the page: Mexico, Italy]*

*Drawn at each flag’s own official ratio, which is itself the difference in some of these pairs.*

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Italy | Italy has no coat of arms, a shorter 2:3 ratio and a lighter green. |

## 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.*

- **Green** (#006847) — Originally independence; now commonly read as hope
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Originally the purity of the Catholic faith; now unity
- **Red** (#CE1126) — The blood of the heroes of independence

## The symbols on it

| What | What it stands for |
| --- | --- |
| Eagle, cactus and serpent | The sign the Mexica were told to look for when founding Tenochtitlan, on the site of modern Mexico City |

- **Ratio:** 4:7
- **Current design adopted:** 1968
- **Colours:** green, white, red

## Common questions

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

Three equal vertical bands of green, white and red, with the national coat of arms — a golden eagle on a cactus, devouring a snake — centred on the white.

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

Green: originally independence; now commonly read as hope. White: originally the purity of the Catholic faith; now unity. Red: the blood of the heroes of independence.

### How do you tell the Mexico flag from the Italy one?

Italy has no coat of arms, a shorter 2:3 ratio and a lighter green.

### When was the Mexico flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1968, and its official ratio is 4:7.

## Related pages

- [Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/country/mexico/)
- [The flag of Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)
- [Every flag with green in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/green/)
- [The flag of India](https://atoneplace.net/flag/india/)
- [The flag of Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/flag/brazil/)
- [The flag of Ireland](https://atoneplace.net/flag/ireland/)
- [The flag of South Africa](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-africa/)
- [The flag of Jamaica](https://atoneplace.net/flag/jamaica/)
- [The flag of Pakistan](https://atoneplace.net/flag/pakistan/)
- [The flag of Palestine](https://atoneplace.net/flag/palestine/)
- [The flag of Portugal](https://atoneplace.net/flag/portugal/)

## Sources

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