Last modified: 2007-02-10 by phil nelson
Keywords: flag color | statistics: flag color |
Links: FOTW homepage |
search |
disclaimer and copyright |
write us |
mirrors
See also:
I have always asked myself what is the most frequent combination of colours; what is the most used colour on flags, and I decided to research frequency and quantity of colours on flags of independent countries.
The results are sorted in different categories:
Firstly, I had to differentiate colours. I have divided them in 10 groups:
There are 192 flags of independent countries in the world. The most frequent are the three-coloured flags.
| no of colours | no of flags | % |
| 1 | 1 | 0.52 |
| 2 | 43 | 22.40 |
| 3 | 76 | 39.58 |
| 4 | 45 | 23.44 |
| 5 | 14 | 7.29 |
| 6 | 7 | 3.65 |
| 7 | 4 | 2.08 |
| 8 | 2 | 1.04 |
And the most frequent combination of colours is White/Red/Blue...
| Combinations | Number | References |
| W/R/B | 30 | |
| W/R | 16 | |
| R/V/Y | 10 | (Pan-African colours) |
| W/R/G | 10 | |
| W/N/R/V | 8 | (Pan-Arab colours) |
| W/R/B/Y | 6 | |
| B/Y | 5 | |
| R/B/Y | 5 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y | 5 | |
| W/G | 4 | Comoros, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia |
| R/Y | 4 | China, Kyrgyz R., Macedonia, Vietnam |
| N/R/V/Y | 4 | Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Vanuatu |
| W/R/B/V | 4 | Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Gambia, Uzbekistan |
| W/N/R/V/Y | 4 | St. Kitts and Nevis, Mozambique, Guyana, Zimbabwe |
| N/R/Y | 3 | |
| W/V/O | 3 | Ireland, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, India (Orange appears only with green) |
| W/N/R/Y | 3 | |
| R/B/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/R/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/R/B/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/N/R/B/Y | 3 | |
| R/G | 2 | |
| B/V/Y | 2 | |
| N/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/N/B | 2 | |
| W/N/R | 2 | |
| W/N/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/B/V/Y | 2 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y/G/M | 2 | |
| B/R | 1 | Haiti |
| N/R | 1 | Albania |
| G/Y | 1 | Mauritania |
| G | 1 | Libya |
| N/R/V | 1 | |
| N/V/Y | 1 | |
| R/B/O | 1 | |
| W/B/V | 1 | |
| W/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B | 1 | |
| W/N/R/O | 1 | |
| W/N/R/G | 1 | |
| W/N/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/N/Y/M | 1 | |
| N/R/B/Y | 1 | |
| N/B/V/Y | 1 | |
| R/V/Y/O | 1 | |
| W/B/V/M | 1 | |
| W/B/V/O | 1 | |
| N/R/B/Y/M | 1 | |
| N/R/V/O/M | 1 | |
| W/N/R/Y/G | 1 | |
| N/R/B/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/R/B/V/Y/P | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/Y/G | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/O/M | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y/M | 1 | |
| W/N/B/V/Y/G/M | 1 | |
| W/N/B/V/V/Y/P | 1 |
The number of flags containing particular colours are:
| Colour | No. | % |
| Red | 148 | 77.08 |
| White | 140 | 72.92 |
| Blue | 102 | 53.13 |
| Yellow/Gold | 89 | 46.30 |
| Green | 87 | 45.31 |
| Black | 59 | 30.73 |
| Orange | 9 | 4.69 |
| Brown | 9 | 4.69 |
| Gray | 6 | 3.13 |
| Purple | 2 | 1.04 |
Sorted by area of colour:
| Colour | Percent |
| Red | 30.30 |
| Blue | 21.15 |
| White | 19.12 |
| Green | 15.33 |
| Yellow/Gold | 8.60 |
| Black | 5.13 |
| Orange | 1.24 |
| Brown | 0.11 |
| Gray | 0.03 |
| Purple | 0.001 |
Definitely, red is the most popular colour. The second colour, as you can see is not the same by area and by frequency (blue & white) ....... And the champions of whiteness are (results in % of flag area):
Black:
Red:
Blue:
Green:
Yellow/Gold:
Orange:
Gray:
Brown:
Purple:
By % of flag area regardless of colour:
There are 30 plain tribands (with equal stripes/bands) out of the countries of the world.
6 of them are "2-coloured tribands":
24 are "3-coloured tribands":
% of colour area of all tribands:
Existing combinations:
Flags
of the World is produced and maintained by an Editorial Staff of unpaid volunteers
and the contents of these pages are offered freely to the Internet community.
This Fotw.net
mirror is sponsored by MrFlag.com
(for flag
and bunting
). Web
design and eCommerce for MrFlag.com by Wired Media .