At One Place

The flag of Thailand

The flag of Thailand
Five horizontal stripes — red, white, a double-height blue, white, red.
Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1917

The blue band was added in 1917 partly because it was the colour of Thailand's new First World War allies, Britain, France and the United States, and partly because blue was the king's birth-colour under the Thai weekday tradition. The previous flag showed a white elephant on red, which was replaced after King Vajiravudh reportedly saw one flying upside down during a flood. Costa Rica's flag is the same five-stripe layout with the red and blue exchanged. The nickname Trairanga means "tricolour", though there are five stripes.

Flags it gets confused with

Flag How to tell them apart
Costa Rica Costa Rica swaps the colours — blue outer stripes and a double-height red centre.

What the colours mean

  • Red #A51931 The land and the people
  • White #FFFFFF Religion, principally Buddhism
  • Blue #2D2A4A The monarchy; the double-height central band

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.

Ratio
2:3
Current design adopted
1917
Colours
red, white, blue

Common questions

What does the flag of Thailand look like?
Five horizontal stripes — red, white, a double-height blue, white, red.
What do the colours of the Thailand flag mean?
Red: the land and the people. White: religion, principally Buddhism. Blue: the monarchy; the double-height central band.
How do you tell the Thailand flag from the Costa Rica one?
Costa Rica swaps the colours — blue outer stripes and a double-height red centre.
When was the Thailand flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1917, and its official ratio is 2:3.

Related pages

Sources

  1. The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency (Public domain (US Government))

How these figures are compiled and checked