what does this symbol mean?

Flags of territories and home nations

The flags of places that are part of a larger country: England, Scotland and Wales within the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico in the United States. What each one shows and stands for, and how it relates to the national flag.

United Kingdom 3 symbols

United States 1 symbol

About flags of territories and home nations

The flags of places that are part of a larger country. England, Scotland and Wales are, in the Flag Institute’s words, constituent nations of the United Kingdom, and each has its own national flag. Puerto Rico belongs to the United States: the US Department of the Interior lists it as an unincorporated insular area and a commonwealth. Each page says what the flag shows, what it stands for, and how it sits beside the flag of the country it belongs to.

The home nations and the Union Flag

The UK government’s specification describes the Union Flag as three crosses on a royal blue background: a red St George’s cross, a white St Andrew’s saltire and a red St Patrick’s saltire. The first two are England’s flag and Scotland’s; the third, St Patrick’s, stands for Ireland. The first Union Flag, of 1606, combined the flags of England and Scotland, and the present one dates from 1801. Wales’s red dragon is not in it: the Welsh flag, alone among the home nations’ flags, is not the cross of a patron saint.

Puerto Rico’s flag and the US flag

Puerto Rico’s flag was adopted in its present legal form by Law No. 1 of 24 July 1952, which also requires government buildings to fly it alongside the United States flag with equal prominence. The design is older: Puerto Ricans in New York presented it in December 1895 as the Cuban flag with its colours inverted, white stripes and a blue triangle where Cuba’s are blue and red.

Sources

  1. England Flag, Flag Institute, UK flags: England (St George’s Cross), The Flag Institute, Flag details and notes
  2. Wales Flag, UK flags, The Flag Institute, Flag details and notes
  3. Scotland Flag, Flag Institute, UK flags: Scotland (St Andrew’s Cross), The Flag Institute, Flag details and notes
  4. Definitions of Insular Area Political Organizations (US Department of the Interior), US Department of the Interior, Office of Insular Affairs, Definitions of Insular Area Political Organizations, US Department of the Interior, Commonwealth; Unincorporated territory
  5. Union Flag Specification, Flag Institute, Union Flag Specification, The Flag Institute, Specification, points 1, 5, 6
  6. Designated days for flying the Union Flag on UK government buildings, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Designated days for Union Flag flying (guidance), GOV.UK (Department for Culture, Media and Sport), Introduction; flying the Union Flag; designated days
  7. Flag of Wales: a blood-red dragon on a field of green, Flag facts, by Alex Crouch, The Flag Institute, Wales – St. David
  8. Ley Núm. 1 de 24 de julio de 1952 (Ley de la Bandera del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico), Ley de la Bandera del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, Ley Núm. 1 de 24 de julio de 1952, según enmendada (OGP compilation, rev. 15 April 2024), Oficina de Gerencia y Presupuesto, Gobierno de Puerto Rico, Sección 1–3, 5 (1 L.P.R.A. §§ 31–33, 33b)
  9. Banderas y escudo (Gobierno de Puerto Rico), Gobierno de Puerto Rico, pr.gov, “Banderas y escudo”, Gobierno de Puerto Rico, Bandera de Puerto Rico

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 13, 2026. How we research