Flag of Colombia
Colombia’s flag is three horizontal stripes: yellow across the top half, then blue and red, a quarter each. Colombia’s Foreign Ministry explains the yellow as the wealth of the soil, the blue as the sky, the rivers and the two oceans, and the red as the blood shed by the liberators; the flag law itself gives no meanings.
Easily confused with
- Flag of EcuadorThe same yellow, blue and red stripes in the same proportions; Ecuador’s official flags add the national arms in the centre.
- Flag of VenezuelaVenezuela’s flag is yellow, blue and red in three equal horizontal stripes with an arc of eight white five-pointed stars in the blue. The flag law gives the colours no meaning. The first seven stars are the provinces that declared independence in 1811; the eighth, added in 2006 at President Hugo Chávez’s request, is the province of Guayana, after a decree Simón Bolívar signed in 1817.
How to read it
Law 12 of 29 February 1984 names the flag, the coat of arms and the anthem as Colombia’s national symbols and fixes the flag: the national colours yellow, blue and red in three horizontal stripes, the yellow at the top and as wide as half the flag, the other two each a quarter, with the blue in the centre. The Foreign Ministry dates the flag in use today to Law 124 of 13 July 1887. Decree 1967 of 1991 makes flying the flag compulsory on public and private buildings throughout the country on 20 July, 7 August, 12 October, 11 November and the feast of the Sacred Heart; on days of national mourning it flies at half-mast with a black crape bow.
Also searched as: colombia flag, colombia flag meaning, colombian flag, colombian flag meaning, flag of colombia.
What flag is yellow, blue and red?
Colombia’s, Ecuador’s and Venezuela’s flags are all yellow, blue and red in horizontal stripes, in that order from the top. Colombia’s has nothing on it, and its yellow stripe is half the flag. Ecuador’s stripes are in the same proportions, but the flags on Ecuador’s public buildings, warships and embassies carry the national arms in the centre; Ecuadorian merchant ships and private citizens fly the plain flag, which is the same design as Colombia’s. Venezuela’s three stripes are equal, with an arc of eight white stars in the middle of the blue.
Miranda and Goethe’s colours
The Foreign Ministry’s study guide for applicants for Colombian nationality, written with the National University of Colombia, says the colours were proposed by Francisco de Miranda, who followed Goethe’s theory of colours: yellow, the colour “warmest, noblest and closest to light”, takes the largest part of the flag. The same guide notes that the republic historians call Gran Colombia, named by Simón Bolívar in 1819, covered what is now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.
Read next
- Next in South American flagsFlag of EcuadorEcuador’s flag is yellow, blue and red in horizontal stripes, the yellow twice as wide as each of the others, with the national arms in the centre on official flags: a condor above an oval showing the Chimborazo volcano, a river and a steamship. The flag law gives the colours no meaning; El Universo gives the usual reading, yellow for the mineral and fertile soil, blue for the sky and sea, red for the blood of Ecuador’s heroes.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of AngolaAngola’s flag is red over black with a yellow emblem in the centre: part of a cogwheel, a machete and a five-pointed star. Its constitution says the red is the blood shed by Angolans under colonial oppression, in the liberation struggle and in defence of the country, and the black is the African continent; the cogwheel stands for workers and industry, the machete for peasants, farming and the armed struggle, the star for international solidarity and progress, and their yellow for the country’s wealth.
More south American flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Ley 12 de 1984, por la cual se adoptan los símbolos patrios de la República de Colombia, Ley 12 de 1984 (29 February 1984), Gestor Normativo, Departamento Administrativo de la Función Pública (Colombia), Arts. 1–2; date
- Decreto 1967 de 1991, por el cual se reglamenta el uso de los símbolos patrios (Colombia), Decreto 1967 de 1991, Normograma de la Cancillería, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Colombia), Art. 1 and parágrafo
- Colombia, nuestra casa: guía de estudio (Cancillería), Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, “Colombia, nuestra casa”, study guide for the nationality examination, 2025, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores (Colombia), 1.1 Nombre oficial; 1.2 Bandera nacional
- Decreto Legislativo relativo a las Armas de la República y Pabellón Nacional (Ecuador, 1900), Decreto Legislativo, 31 October 1900, Registro Oficial nº 1272; text from Decretos y leyes sancionados en el año 1900 (Archivo del Poder Legislativo, Quito, 1901), transcribed on Wikisource, Congreso de la República del Ecuador (Wikisource transcription), Arts. 2, 3 and 6
- Ley de Bandera Nacional, Himno Nacional y Escudo de Armas de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela, Ley de Bandera Nacional, Himno Nacional y Escudo de Armas (2006), Justia Venezuela, Justia Venezuela, Art. 3
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research
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