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

# The flag of Serbia

**The flag of Serbia: Three equal horizontal bands of red, blue and white, with a coat of arms — a crowned double-headed eagle — set toward the hoist.**

Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 2010

Serbia's tricolour is Russia's upside down, a deliberate nineteenth-century nod: the Serbs took the pan-Slavic colours and inverted the order. The civil flag has no arms; the state flag does, and the two are used in different contexts by law. The 2010 revision moved the arms slightly and adjusted the shades after the 2004 restoration of the monarchy-era design. The four firesteels around the cross are widely explained as the letters of "Only unity saves the Serbs", a reading that is traditional rather than documented.

## Flags it gets confused with

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Russia | Russia is white-blue-red; Serbia is red-blue-white — the same bands reversed. |
| Slovakia | Slovakia is white on top with a double cross, not an eagle. |

## 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** (#C6363C) — Pan-Slavic; the top band
- **Blue** (#0C4076) — Pan-Slavic; the middle band
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Pan-Slavic; the bottom band

## The symbols on it

| What | What it stands for |
| --- | --- |
| Double-headed eagle | The Nemanjić dynasty, and Byzantine inheritance |
| Cross with four firesteels | The Serbian cross; the four shapes are commonly read as the initials of a Byzantine motto |

- **Ratio:** 2:3
- **Current design adopted:** 2010
- **Colours:** red, blue, white

## Common questions

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

Three equal horizontal bands of red, blue and white, with a coat of arms — a crowned double-headed eagle — set toward the hoist.

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

Red: pan-Slavic; the top band. Blue: pan-Slavic; the middle band. White: pan-Slavic; the bottom band.

### How do you tell the Serbia flag from the Russia one?

Russia is white-blue-red; Serbia is red-blue-white — the same bands reversed.

### When was the Serbia flag adopted?

The current design dates from 2010, and its official ratio is 2:3.

## Related pages

- [Serbia](https://atoneplace.net/country/serbia/)
- [The flag of Russia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/russia/)
- [The flag of Slovakia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/slovakia/)
- [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 Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)
- [The flag of Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/flag/mexico/)

## Sources

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