These are some of the most famous countries with flags that use these three colors—and what they mean about each nation.
Stripe Flags
Benin 🇧🇯
The flag of Benin reflects the vibrant spirit of Africa with red, yellow and green colors. Its colors are similar to those of other flags in African cities. Green represents the fertility of nature; yellow, hope and wealth; red, the courage of ancestors.
Adopted in 1975, this flag is a tribute to the Benin people's love for independence and freedom.
Bonus: Flag coloring pages
Portugal 🇵🇹
You can already find all the generic information about this flag on the internet. I will tell you an interesting fact about the colors and symbols of the Portuguese flag. In 1139, the design of this flag is based on the legend of Count Afonso Henriques' victory over the Moorish forces.
Henriques added to his flag the five shields he had received from the five Moorish kings.
Each shield had five white disks representing the five wounds of Jesus. Jesus allegedly appeared to Henriques before the battle to guarantee his victory.
In the 13th century, King Afonso III added to the flag a shield decorated with a red border and gold castles, symbolizing the Kingdom of Castile. Thus the flag reached its final form.
Lithuania 🇱🇹
I planned this post as a blog post where I collect interesting features about flags in general. But no matter how much I searched for Lithuania, I couldn't find any significant information about it, so I will talk about some of its technical features, maybe for the benefit of designers:
The technical specifications and Pantone color codes of the Lithuanian flag are as follows:
Yellow: Pantone PMS 1235 C, Hex #FFB81C, RGB (255, 184, 28), CMYK (0, 31, 98, 0)
Green: Pantone PMS 349 C, Hex #046A38, RGB (0, 106, 56), CMYK (90, 12, 95, 40)
Red: Pantone PMS 180 C, Hex #BE3A34, RGB (190, 58, 52), CMYK (3, 91, 86, 12)
These colors are very important for designers and print specialists, because they are absolutely essential to ensure the right shades and harmonies!
Republic of the Congo 🇨🇬
When the flag of the Republic of Congo was designed, only two of its three colors had symbolic value. Yes, very interesting. Usually when we read about the design of a flag, there are pages and pages of explanations and metaphors!
Let's see which colors have meaning!
Green represents the vast and diverse rainforests of the country, while yellow symbolizes the warmth of the Congolese people.
This is where things get weird!
The color red is not given any significant meaning.
I imagine the designer's presentation to the President and it's really funny! Why did you use red?
Well, because it goes well with other colors! A really honest and cool explanation!
Guyana 🇬🇾
The flag of Guyana originated during the preparations for independence in a competition in which many design proposals were submitted. Competition designs used to be very popular, as you can see in my other articles on flags!
Do you know that even the nike logo was chosen through a competition?
Maybe a company logo is not that important but... It is really meaningful to choose the logo of a nation through a competition instead of an unrelated design agency. Because the fact that citizens make the flag of citizens shows that the world used to have a different perspective in terms of equal opportunities!
An American design by Whitney Smith, with a red background, a green triangle and a stylized yellow arrowhead, was modified by the Guyanese by replacing the green and red and adding a narrow black frame to the triangle and a narrow white frame to the arrowhead.
Green represents the country's forests and fields, white its abundant waters, red its efforts and sacrifices in nation-building, and black its perseverance.
Bolivia 🇧🇴
Bolivia's flag consists of horizontal stripes of red, yellow and green from top to bottom. Red represents the heroism of the Bolivian people; yellow represents the rich mineral resources of the country; green represents fertile lands and nature.
This flag also symbolizes the pride and national unity of Bolivians.
Guinea 🇬🇳
The flag of Guinea consists of vertical stripes of red, yellow and green from top to bottom.
Red stands for the courage and struggle of the people, while yellow represents the country's rich mineral resources and the light of the sun.
Green represents Guinea's fertile lands and the country's natural wealth.
Mali 🇲🇱
Mali's flag consists of vertical stripes of green and yellow from left to right. Green represents agriculture and hope, yellow represents the Sahara desert and natural resources. These colors are also Pan-African colors and symbolize the unity and freedom of Africa.
Green Red Yellow Flag With star
Burkina Faso 🇧🇫
The flag of Burkina Faso consists of two horizontal stripes, red and green, with a yellow star in the middle of the green stripe. These colors respectively represent the revolutionary spirit, natural wealth and bright future of the country.
Sao Tome and Príncipe 🇸🇹
Sao Tome and Príncipe flag consists of three vertical stripes of green, yellow and red and two black stars.
Green is the island country's fertile lands and forests; yellow, cocoa, a product of the island's main export; the red represents the country's struggle for independence. Black stars symbolize these two island countries.
Mauritania 🇲🇷
Mauritania flag is has a very simple design with a green color covering the whole floor and a golden crescent and star in the middle.
Green color represents Islam, the official religion of the country; The golden crescent and star represent Arab heritage and independence. In 2017, a slight design change was made by adding the upper and lower red stripes to the flag.
These red stripes symbolize the blood spilled in the country's struggle for independence.
Senegal 🇸🇳
Senegal's flag consists of three vertical stripes of green, yellow and red; right in the middle, there is a green star on the yellow stripe.
Green represents Islam, agriculture and the country's hopes; yellow, wealth and the working class; red represents the struggle for freedom.
The green star in the middle signifies the belief in a single and united future of Africa. Also, these three colors are the colors of the Pan-Africanism movement and are seen in many African countries.
Grenada 🇬🇩
Grenada's flag reflects the essence of this beautiful Caribbean island, often referred to as the "Spice Isle". The four colors – red, green, yellow and white – on the flag represent courage, fertility, wisdom and hope, respectively. In the middle of the flag, a seven-pointed star symbolizes the seven administrative regions of the island, while the three-dimensional basmala in the upper left corner of the flag represents the country's important spice industry.
The small nutmeg pattern at the bottom bears a memory of Grenada being the world's largest producer of nutmeg.
Ghana 🇬🇭
Ethiopia 🇪🇹
Cameroon 🇨🇲
Related Article: Green White Red Flag