Flag of Rhode Island
Rhode Island’s flag is white with a gold anchor inside a ring of 13 gold stars, over a blue ribbon with the motto “Hope” in gold. The anchor and the word “Hope” are the state’s arms under its law, which doesn’t say what the 13 stars stand for.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The flag law, § 42-4-3 of the General Laws, makes the flag white, 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in) on the fly and 1.47 m (4 ft 10 in) deep on the pike, with a gold anchor 56 cm (22 in) high in the centre of each side and a blue ribbon 61 cm (24 in) long and 13 cm (5 in) wide beneath it, “or in these proportions”, the motto “Hope” in golden letters on the ribbon and 13 golden stars in a circle around the whole. The flag is edged with yellow fringe, and its pike is 2.74 m (9 ft) long, not counting the spearhead on top. The section goes back to the General Laws of 1896 and a law of 1897, and was last amended in 1978. The arms of the state, § 42-4-1, are “a golden anchor on a blue field”, with the motto “Hope”. The Department of State dates the first state flag to 1877, the arms to 1882 and the state seal to 1664. The motto is also Rhode Island’s state motto.
Also searched as: flag of rhode island, rhode island flag, rhode island flag meaning, rhode island state flag.
The name on the seal
Rhode Islanders voted in 2020 to remove “Providence Plantations” from the state’s name, and the seal now reads only “State of Rhode Island”, the Department of State says. The flag carries no name, so the vote did not change it.
Telling it from Massachusetts’s flag
Both are white. Massachusetts’s flag has a blue shield with a gold figure and an arm holding a sword above it. Rhode Island’s has no shield: a gold anchor in a ring of gold stars, with the blue ribbon below.
Read next
- Next in US state flagsFlag of VermontVermont’s flag is blue with the state coat of arms: a pine tree, a red cow and three sheaves of wheat before blue mountains, a buck’s head above, and “Vermont” and “Freedom and Unity” on the scroll below. The Secretary of State’s manual, explaining the same pieces on the state seal, reads the hills as the Green Mountains and the cow and sheaves as farming.
- The same shape in South American flagsFlag of BrazilBrazil’s flag is a yellow diamond on green holding a blue globe of 27 white stars, the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of 15 November 1889, crossed by a white band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (“Order and Progress”). Each star stands for a state or the Federal District; the 1889 flag decree said the green and yellow, kept from the empire, recall the victories of the army and navy.
More US state flags
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with letters and numbers, squares and rectangles or stars.
Sources
- Rhode Island General Laws § 42-4-3 (State flag), R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-4-3, State of Rhode Island General Assembly, § 42-4-3. State flag; History of Section
- Rhode Island General Laws § 42-4-1 (Arms of state), R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-4-1, State of Rhode Island General Assembly, § 42-4-1. Arms of state
- Rhode Island State Symbols (RI Department of State), Rhode Island Department of State, "Rhode Island State Symbols," Civics and Education, Facts & Figures, Rhode Island Department of State (Secretary of State), State Seal; Arms of the State; State Flag
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 14, 2026. How we research
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