---
title: "Flag of United States: colours and meaning"
description: "What every colour and symbol on the United States flag stands for, its official 10:19 ratio, and the year the current design was adopted."
url: https://atoneplace.net/flag/united-states/
site: "At One Place"
---

# The flag of United States

**The flag of United States: Thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white, starting and ending with red, and a blue canton in the top hoist corner holding fifty white five-pointed stars in nine offset rows.**

Ratio 10:19 · current design adopted 1960

*[Flag drawn on the page: United States]*

The 10:19 ratio is unusually long and comes from Executive Order 10834 of 1959, which also fixed the exact star layout; flags sold at 3:5 or 2:3 are technically non-conforming and extremely common. The colour meanings are not in the flag law at all — they were given by Charles Thomson in 1782 for the Great Seal, and were attached to the flag afterwards. The fifty-star arrangement was designed in 1958 by Robert G. Heft, a seventeen-year-old Ohio student, as a school project that initially earned a B−. There is no provision for removing a star, only for adding one.

## Flags it gets confused with

| Flag | How to tell them apart |
| --- | --- |
| Liberia | Liberia has eleven stripes and a single large white star on a blue canton that covers only the top five stripes. The ratio, 10:19, is identical, which is not coincidence. |
| Malaysia | Malaysia has fourteen stripes and a yellow crescent and fourteen-pointed star on the blue canton, not stars. |

## 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** (#B31942) — Hardiness and valour
- **White** (#FFFFFF) — Purity and innocence
- **Blue** (#0A3161) — Vigilance, perseverance and justice

## The symbols on it

| What | What it stands for |
| --- | --- |
| Thirteen stripes | The thirteen colonies that declared independence in 1776 |
| Fifty stars | One for each state; a star is added on the 4 July after admission |

- **Ratio:** 10:19
- **Current design adopted:** 1960
- **Colours:** red, white, blue

> The specification names Pantone 193 C and 281 C, not hex. #B31942 and #0A3161 come from the official CMYK conversion; #B22234 and #3C3B6E, from an older RGB approximation, are equally widespread online.

## Common questions

### What does the flag of United States look like?

Thirteen horizontal stripes alternating red and white, starting and ending with red, and a blue canton in the top hoist corner holding fifty white five-pointed stars in nine offset rows.

### What do the colours of the United States flag mean?

Red: hardiness and valour. White: purity and innocence. Blue: vigilance, perseverance and justice.

### How do you tell the United States flag from the Liberia one?

Liberia has eleven stripes and a single large white star on a blue canton that covers only the top five stripes. The ratio, 10:19, is identical, which is not coincidence.

### When was the United States flag adopted?

The current design dates from 1960, and its official ratio is 10:19.

## Related pages

- [United States](https://atoneplace.net/country/united-states/)
- [The flag of Malaysia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/malaysia/)
- [Every flag with red in it](https://atoneplace.net/flag/colour/red/)
- [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 Russia](https://atoneplace.net/flag/russia/)
- [The flag of Italy](https://atoneplace.net/flag/italy/)
- [The flag of Mexico](https://atoneplace.net/flag/mexico/)

## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)