Flag of Kuwait

Kuwait’s national flag has three equal horizontal stripes: green at the top, white in the middle, and red at the bottom. A black trapezoid fills the hoist side beside the flagpole. The flag is twice as long as it is high and was adopted on September 7, 1961.

The usual English names are “Flag of Kuwait,” “Kuwaiti flag,” and “Flag of the State of Kuwait.” The Arabic name علم الكويت means “flag of Kuwait.” These names refer to the green, white, and red flag with a black trapezoid introduced in 1961.

In a standard horizontal front view, the stripes run green, white, and red from top to bottom. The black trapezoid is on the viewer’s left, next to the flagpole. All three stripes have the same height. The trapezoid overlays the stripes rather than forming a fourth horizontal band.

The flag uses green, white, red, and black. The downloadable artwork uses green #007A3D, white #FFFFFF, red #CE1126, and black #000000. The corresponding RGB values are 0, 122, 61; 255, 255, 255; 206, 17, 38; and 0, 0, 0. These codes describe this digital palette.

Kuwait’s flag represents the state and its independence. Its four colors belong to the Pan-Arab palette and are associated with a verse by Safi al-Din al-Hilli. In the familiar poetic explanation, white relates to deeds, black to battles, green to pastures, and red to swords and sacrifice.

The green stripe is associated with pastures, fields, or flourishing dwelling places in the poem linked to Kuwait’s colors. It occupies the top third of the flag. This poetic association should not be confused with a claim that Kuwait is predominantly agricultural or covered in green vegetation.

White is associated with good deeds and honorable actions in the traditional poetic explanation. It forms the middle stripe. In a correct reproduction, the white area is a solid part of the flag, not a transparent gap between green and red.

The red stripe is linked to swords in the poem’s martial imagery, often explained through courage and sacrifice. It occupies the bottom third of the flag. English summaries may describe the verse more broadly as a reference to the past, struggle, or blood shed in battle.

Black is associated with battles and struggle in the poetic explanation of Kuwait’s flag. It appears as a trapezoid at the hoist, not as a horizontal stripe. The documented connection to the poem is a better explanation than the unsupported claim that the flag’s black color was chosen to represent oil.

It is a trapezoid: a four-sided shape with two parallel vertical sides of unequal length. The longer side touches the pole and equals the flag’s full height. The shorter inner side equals one stripe’s height. The horizontal distance between those sides is one quarter of the flag’s length.

Kuwait’s flag has a height-to-length ratio of 1:2. Its length is twice its height. For example, a flag 60 centimeters high is 120 centimeters long. In image dimensions, which usually list width first, the equivalent size could be 2400 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high.

Use a rectangle 12 units long and 6 units high. Divide it into three horizontal stripes, each 2 units high, colored green, white, and red. Add a black trapezoid with corners at (0,0), (3,2), (3,4), and (0,6), measuring coordinates from the upper-left corner.

Any dimensions in which length equals twice height preserve the 1:2 ratio. Examples include 30 by 60 centimeters, 60 by 120 centimeters, and 90 by 180 centimeters, with height listed first. The PNG on this page is 1200 pixels high and 2400 pixels wide.

The current flag was adopted on September 7, 1961, through Law No. 26 of 1961, issued under Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah. The law established its rectangular proportions, three equal stripes, and black trapezoid. Adoption followed Kuwait’s independence earlier that year.

Kuwait’s present national flag was first officially raised on November 24, 1961. The September adoption and November raising describe different milestones in the same year. The flag law was also amended on November 18, shortly before the new flag entered public use.

Before the present design, Kuwait used red flags in several forms. A well-known earlier design carried the name “Kuwait” in white Arabic lettering. Historical versions differed in shape and inscriptions, so there was not just one unchanging predecessor. The four-color flag replaced the earlier red designs in 1961.

Kuwaiti diplomatic sources connect the flag’s colors to the Arab poet Safi al-Din al-Hilli, whose name is also transliterated Safie Al-Deen Al-Hili. The often-cited verse links four colors with deeds, battles, pastures, and swords. It provides a literary explanation for the palette.

Green, white, red, and black are widely known as the Pan-Arab colors. Several Arab national flags use them in different arrangements. Kuwait is identified by its green–white–red stripe order and black trapezoid. Sharing a palette does not make the designs interchangeable.

Kuwait celebrates National Day on February 25. The date is associated with Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem Al-Sabah’s accession and was combined with the national independence celebration. The historical date of independence from British protection is June 19, 1961, which is separate from the flag’s September adoption.

February 26 is Kuwait’s Liberation Day, commemorating liberation from Iraqi occupation in 1991. It follows National Day on February 25. The national flag is prominent during both occasions, but the green, white, red, and black design dates to 1961, three decades before liberation.

No. The national flag contains only three colored stripes and a black trapezoid. Kuwait’s separate national emblem features a falcon with outspread wings and a dhow sailing on waves. The ship reflects the country’s maritime heritage; it is not an element of the plain national flag.

Both flags use green, white, red, and black, but their layouts differ. Kuwait has green, white, and red horizontal stripes with a black trapezoid at the pole. The United Arab Emirates has green, white, and black horizontal stripes with a red vertical rectangle at the pole.

The black trapezoid is always beside the flagpole. In the standard front view it appears on the viewer’s left. Looking at the reverse of a single-layer flag places the pole and black shape on the viewer’s right. Green remains above white and red in both horizontal views.

Keep the full 1:2 rectangle visible, preserve the stripe order, and place the black trapezoid at the hoist. Use clean, solid colors without inserting text or an emblem into the plain flag. If an educational diagram adds labels or outlines, keep those annotations distinct from the flag artwork.

Use the SVG for sharp resizing or the 2400 × 1200 PNG for a fixed-size raster image. At 300 pixels per inch, the PNG supports an 8 × 4 inch image without enlargement. Preserve the 2:1 width-to-height ratio and print the white stripe as white rather than transparency.

The Kuwait flag emoji is 🇰🇼. Its Unicode sequence is U+1F1F0 followed by U+1F1FC, the regional indicator letters K and W. Supported platforms display the combined sequence as a flag; other systems may show the letters or missing-glyph symbols.

This page provides a plain Kuwait flag as an SVG and a 2400 × 1200 PNG. It also includes seven explanatory SVG diagrams covering construction, colors, symbolism, the trapezoid, history, orientation, and example sizes. All flag artwork keeps the same 1:2 proportions.