Flag quiz: learn the flags of the world
Flags are the fastest way into geography: a few seconds of looking and you either know the country or you do not. This quiz shows a flag and asks which country it belongs to, as four choices on Easy or typed from memory on Hard.
Start the quiz: FlagsHow to learn them
- Start with families. Tricolors (France, Italy, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands), Nordic crosses (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland) and the Pan-Arab colors give you dozens of flags at once.
- Learn the look-alikes together. Chad and Romania are almost identical, as are Indonesia and Monaco, and Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire have the same stripes in reverse order.
- Pay attention to the details. A coat of arms, a star or the proportion of the stripes is often the only thing that separates two flags.
Fun facts about flags
A few things most people do not know about the flags of the world.
- c. 2400 BC
The oldest known flag
A bronze flag-like object from Shahdad, Iran, shows a seated man, a kneeling woman and a star between them. Cloth flags probably came later, from India or China.
The Dannebrog
Denmark's flag is the oldest national flag in continuous use, since 1625 according to Guinness World Records. A legend says it fell from the sky during a battle in 1219.
Nepal
The only national flag that is not rectangular, and the only one taller than it is wide. It was made by joining two pennants of rival branches of the ruling dynasty.
Square flags
Only Switzerland and Vatican City have a square national flag. The Red Cross emblem is the Swiss flag with its colors reversed.
Two different sides
Paraguay's flag is the only one with a different design on each side: the national seal on the front and the treasury seal with a lion on the back.