At One Place

The flag of Uruguay

The flag of Uruguay
Nine alternating horizontal stripes of white and blue, with a white canton bearing a golden Sun of May.
Ratio 2:3 · current design adopted 1830

The flag started with nineteen stripes in 1828, one per department, and was reduced to nine in 1830 for legibility — a rare case of a country deciding its own symbolism was getting in the way. The stripe-and-canton layout is modelled on the United States flag, which Uruguayan legislators cited explicitly. The Sun of May has sixteen rays here, against Argentina's thirty-two. Uruguay also has two other official flags, the Artigas flag and the Treinta y Tres flag, both flown alongside the national one on public buildings.

What the colours mean

  • White #FFFFFF Peace, and the canton
  • Blue #0038A8 Liberty; also the sky
  • Gold #FCD116 The Sun of May

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
Nine stripes The nine original departments of the country in 1828
Sun of May The same emblem Argentina uses, from the May Revolution
Ratio
2:3
Current design adopted
1830
Colours
white, blue, gold

Common questions

What does the flag of Uruguay look like?
Nine alternating horizontal stripes of white and blue, with a white canton bearing a golden Sun of May.
What do the colours of the Uruguay flag mean?
White: peace, and the canton. Blue: liberty; also the sky. Gold: the Sun of May.
When was the Uruguay flag adopted?
The current design dates from 1830, 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