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

# The flag of Romania

**The flag of Romania: Three equal vertical bands of cobalt blue at the hoist, yellow and red.**

Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1989

*[Flag drawn on the page: Romania]*

The plain tricolour was restored on 27 December 1989, when the socialist coat of arms was cut out of the flags carried during the revolution — the flag with a hole in the middle is one of the defining images of that December. The colours come from the three principalities: blue for Wallachia, yellow for Moldavia and red for Transylvania, though the reading varies by source. Romanian law specifies the shades as cobalt blue, chrome yellow and vermilion red, which is the only thing separating the flag from Chad's. A 1994 attempt to legislate an exact shade never resolved the overlap.

## Flags it gets confused with

*[Flag drawn on the page: 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 |
| --- | --- |
| Chad | Chad's hoist band is a dark indigo (#002664) against Romania's cobalt (#002B7F). Nothing else differs. |
| Moldova | Moldova adds an aurochs-head coat of arms on the yellow band. |
| Andorra | Andorra adds a quartered coat of arms and is slightly squarer at 7:10. |

## 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.*

- **Blue** (#002B7F) — Liberty — a cobalt blue, lighter than Chad's
- **Yellow** (#FCD116) — Justice
- **Red** (#CE1126) — Fraternity

- **Ratio:** 2:3
- **Current design adopted:** 1989
- **Colours:** blue, yellow, red

## Common questions

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

Three equal vertical bands of cobalt blue at the hoist, yellow and red.

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

Blue: liberty — a cobalt blue, lighter than Chad's. Yellow: justice. Red: fraternity.

### How do you tell the Romania flag from the Chad one?

Chad's hoist band is a dark indigo (#002664) against Romania's cobalt (#002B7F). Nothing else differs.

### When was the Romania flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1989, and its official ratio is 2:3.

## Related pages

- [Romania](https://atoneplace.net/country/romania/)
- [The flag of Chad](https://atoneplace.net/flag/chad/)
- [The flag of Moldova](https://atoneplace.net/flag/moldova/)
- [The flag of Andorra](https://atoneplace.net/flag/andorra/)
- [Every flag with blue in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/blue/)
- [The flag of United States](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-states/)
- [The flag of India](https://atoneplace.net/flag/india/)
- [The flag of United Kingdom](https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-kingdom/)
- [The flag of France](https://atoneplace.net/flag/france/)
- [The flag of Russia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/russia/)
- [The flag of Brazil](https://atoneplace.net/flag/brazil/)
- [The flag of Australia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/australia/)
- [The flag of South Korea](https://atoneplace.net/flag/south-korea/)

## Sources

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