What do the colours of the Moldova flag mean?

Blue: shared with Romania; the colours of the Moldavian principality. Yellow: the central band, bearing the arms. Red: the fly band.

How do you tell the Moldova flag from the Romania one?

Romania has no coat of arms on its flag and is squarer at 2:3.

When was the Moldova flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1990, and its official ratio is 1:2.

The flag of Moldova

Three equal vertical bands of blue, yellow and red, with the national coat of arms — an eagle holding a cross, with an aurochs head on its shield — on the yellow.

Ratio 1:2 · current design adopted 1990

Until 2010 the arms appeared only on the obverse and the reverse was a plain tricolour, which made Moldova one of a tiny handful of flags that were genuinely different on their two sides. A 2010 decree put the arms on both faces, leaving Paraguay alone in that category. The 1:2 ratio distinguishes it from Romania at 2:3 even before the arms are visible. It is also one of the few national flags with a hoist-to-fly ratio that changed after adoption: the original 1990 flag was 1:2, was briefly drawn at 2:3 in practice, and the 2010 rules settled it.

Flags it gets confused with

Romania

Chad

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

Flag	How to tell them apart
Romania	Romania has no coat of arms on its flag and is squarer at 2:3.
Andorra	Andorra's arms are a quartered heraldic shield with a mitre and cattle, not an eagle.
Chad	Chad has no arms at all and a darker blue.

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
Aurochs head	The historic emblem of Moldavia, with a star, a rose and a crescent
Eagle with cross	Taken from the Romanian arms, reflecting shared heritage

Ratio: 1:2
Current design adopted: 1990
Colours: blue, yellow, red

Common questions

What does the flag of Moldova look like?: Three equal vertical bands of blue, yellow and red, with the national coat of arms — an eagle holding a cross, with an aurochs head on its shield — on the yellow.
What do the colours of the Moldova flag mean?: Blue: shared with Romania; the colours of the Moldavian principality. Yellow: the central band, bearing the arms. Red: the fly band.
How do you tell the Moldova flag from the Romania one?: Romania has no coat of arms on its flag and is squarer at 2:3.
When was the Moldova flag adopted?: The current design dates from 1990, and its official ratio is 1:2.

Moldova Capital, area, population and currency
The flag of Romania Routinely mistaken for this one
The flag of Andorra Routinely mistaken for this one
The flag of Chad 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

Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)

How these figures are compiled and checked