Flag of Finland

How to read it

The Act on the Flag of Finland (laki Suomen lipusta, 380/1978) of 26 May 1978, in force since 1 June 1978, says the flag is a blue cross on a white ground and is either the national flag or the state flag. The national flag is 11 units high and 18 long; each arm of the cross is 3 units wide, the fields are 4 units high, and the fields by the pole are 5 long and the outer fields 10. A government decision of 16 September 1993 (827/1993) defines the colours by CIE measurements and gives Pantone 294C as the approximate print colour for the blue. The flag was first used by the Nyland yacht club in 1861 and adopted as Finland’s merchant and national flag on 29 May 1918, the year after independence, Store norske leksikon says.

Also searched as: finland flag, finland flag meaning, finnish flag, finnish flag meaning, flag of finland.

White and blue rather than red and yellow

Until independence in 1917 Finland, a grand duchy of the Russian Empire, flew Russia’s flag. A competition was then held for the new flag’s form and colours, and many proposed the red and yellow of the coat of arms; white and blue won. From December 1917 to May 1918 the state used a red banner with the gold lion of the arms, Store norske leksikon says.

The state flag and the President’s flag

The state flag has the coat of arms of Finland in the square where the arms of the cross meet, edged in yellow 1/40 of the cross’s width. Parliament, the government and its ministries, the highest courts, embassies and other state bodies fly the rectangular state flag. The Defence Forces fly a three-tongued form one unit longer, its outer fields 6 units and the tongues 5 units long, and the President’s flag is that three-tongued flag with the blue and yellow Cross of Liberty in the upper field by the pole. The 1993 decision gives Pantone 186C for the red and 123C for the yellow of the arms. Everyone has the right to fly the national flag, but no other figures may be added to it.

Telling it from the other Nordic crosses

Finland’s is the only one on a white ground. All five Nordic flags set the upright of the cross towards the pole. Dannebrog was the first, followed by Sweden’s, Norway’s, Finland’s and Iceland’s, in the encyclopedia’s order. Of the others, Denmark’s is a white cross on red (28 by 37); Sweden’s a yellow cross on blue (10 by 16); Iceland’s a red cross edged in white on sky blue (18 by 25); Norway’s a dark blue cross edged in white on red (16 by 22).