Yup, there's just a single national flag on earth without any of these common colors
Only One Country’s Flag Doesn’t Have Red, White or Blue—Can You Guess It?
Published on Jul. 25, 2025
Stumping your friends and family with flag trivia is pretty fun. As in, which country’s flag isn’t rectangular? Or which U.S. state flag features (ahem!) female nudity? If you’re stuck, don’t worry—these factoids aren’t usually taught in middle school geography. The respective answers, by the way, are Nepal, whose flag is made up of two pennants, and Virginia, which shows a Roman goddess’s left breast.
Want to dive deeper into vexillology? (That’s the study of flags.) There’s actually only one country out of nearly 200 on the planet that does not have either red, white or blue in its flag. In fact, these three shades are so popular, 29 nations across the globe use all of them in their flag designs.
So which country is the outlier? Read on to learn the answer, and then test your pals once more.
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Which country’s flag doesn’t have red, white or blue?
The one country whose flag doesn’t have red, white or blue among its colors is—drumroll, please—Jamaica. Indeed, this Caribbean island’s banner is made up of a gold X through the middle that’s flanked by two triangles each in shades of black and green. This design was officially adopted as Jamaica’s national flag in August 1962.
What do the colors in the Jamaican flag symbolize?
There’s a bunch of rich symbolism in the Jamaican flag, both literally and figuratively. For starters, according to the National Library of Jamaica, the golden hue stands for sunlight and the wealth of the nation. The green, which is a vibrant shade of emerald, evokes hope as well as the country’s vast agricultural assets. And the black was added to showcase the strength and creativity of the Jamaican citizens.
Which other colors are common in national flags?
Red, white and blue truly do have a lock as the most common national flag colors. Check out these interesting facts: Per the Guinness World Records, red shows up 74% of the time, followed by white (71%) and blue (50%). As for the 29 countries noted above that use all three of those colors? In addition to the United States, they include the United Kingdom, Iceland, France, the Czech Republic, Costa Rica, Libera, Thailand and North Korea.
After this trio, the next most popular shade is green, with 68 nations sporting the hue.
Last up is yellow. Per Gramener, a data science and engineering company, 9% of country flags have it.
What colors are rare in national flags?
Another color that’s rare in national flags is pink, which is lightly sprinkled in the coats of arms of just two flags: Spain and Mexico.
But there’s one shade that doesn’t get any play at all in the world of flags—purple. The reason? Way back in the 1800s, creating purple was very expensive, even more pricey than literal bars of gold. Purple dye cost so much that no nation could afford to use it!
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Sources:
- The National Library of Jamaica: “The story of the Jamaican National Flag:
- Montana State University: “Flag of Nepal”
- World Atlas: “Countries with red, white and blue flags”
- World Atlas: “Country flags with green”
- Guinness World Records: “Mostly commonly used colour in national flags”
- Gramener: “Flags of the World”
- TED-Ed: “Why don’t country flags use the color purple?”
