Flag of the Marshall Islands

The flag is blue with a white twenty-four-pointed star in its upper hoist and two touching diagonal bands rising toward the upper fly. Orange sits above white. Both bands widen toward the free edge, producing a distinctive expanding diagonal rather than two narrow stripes of constant width.

The Flag Act gives a hoist of one unit and a fly of 1.9 units. That means width:height is 19:10, while height:width is 10:19. These are two ways of describing the same rectangle. A 2:1 rectangle is slightly longer and does not match the statutory proportion.

Construction begins with a 19:10 rectangle, two widening diagonal bars, and a twenty-four-point star whose rays are fifteen degrees apart. The Act supplies star diameters and edge measurements. However, its printed right-edge bar values differ from widely used reference artwork, so the downloads are identified as reference illustrations.

The flag uses blue, orange, and white. These downloads use blue #003893, orange #DD7500, and white #FFFFFF from the credited reference artwork. The Flag Act names the colors and delegates precise hues to a Cabinet Executive Order; it does not itself prescribe HEX, RGB, CMYK, or Pantone values.

Blue represents the Pacific Ocean. Orange is associated with bravery and the Ralik, or Sunset, chain; white with peace and the Ratak, or Sunrise, chain. The star represents the country’s districts, while its four extended rays also create a cross associated with the nation’s Christian heritage.

The orange band represents the Ralik chain, whose name is associated with sunset. The white band represents the Ratak chain, associated with sunrise. Geographically, Ralik is the western chain and Ratak the eastern chain. The flag translates those identities into two adjacent bands rather than drawing a literal island map.

The white star has twenty-four outward points, conventionally representing the country’s municipal or electoral districts in the flag’s symbolism. Four points are longer and twenty are shorter. Count the outward tips, not the inward notches, and do not describe the design as twenty-four separate stars or as a count of islands.

The four elongated rays are associated with Majuro, Ebeye, Jaluit, and Wotje, described in official explanations as principal centers. Together they also suggest the Christian cross. They remain part of a single twenty-four-pointed star; the design does not place four additional stars or a separate cross on the blue field.

The rising diagonal can be read as an equator reference, with the star above it indicating the Marshall Islands’ position north of the equator. This is symbolic geography. It does not mean the real equator slopes northeast, that the star plots a precise coordinate, or that the flag is a navigational chart.

Emlain Kabua designed the national flag. She was the republic’s first First Lady, and the design accompanied the start of self-government in 1979. Her authorship should be distinguished from the later work of illustrators who digitized the flag, produced construction sheets, or prepared the SVG and PNG versions used here.

May 1, 1979 is the generally documented adoption date, marking the beginning of self-government. The published Flag Act separately gives June 12, 1979 as its commencement date. These dates describe different parts of the flag’s history and should both be labelled, rather than replacing one with the other without explanation.

Before the present national flag, the Marshall Islands formed part of the United States-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. That territory used a light-blue flag with six white stars for its districts. The six-star territorial design is historical context, not an earlier version of today’s single twenty-four-pointed star.

The flag dates from self-government in 1979. The Compact of Free Association entered into force, and the United States recognized independence, on October 21, 1986. The United Nations Security Council terminated the applicable trusteeship in December 1990. UN membership followed in September 1991. These are distinct milestones, not competing flag-adoption dates.

May 1 is Constitution Day and the anniversary associated with the flag’s adoption in 1979. The published public-holiday schedule does not name a separate Flag Day. March 1 is also directly relevant to flags: the holiday law requires half-staff display for Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day.

For a flag suspended against a wall or background, the Act places the union at the top and on the viewer’s left. Here, the union is the white star. The cloth should hang free of folds. In the usual landscape view, the diagonal bands rise from lower left toward upper right.

A flag suspended away from a wall follows directional rules in the Act. Its union faces north when the audience or traffic lies or moves east–west, and east when the audience or traffic lies or moves north–south. These instructions concern the display’s setting, so wall-display rules alone are insufficient.

The Act generally prohibits outdoor display between sunset and sunrise. Its exception requires both illumination of the flag and a stationary flagstaff at least twenty-five feet high. Lighting alone does not satisfy the wording. Twenty-five feet equals 7.62 meters; the law states the requirement in feet.

The Act requires daily display at government buildings and specified official rooms, display at polling places while voting is open, and display at government-sponsored public functions. It also requires a flag in every classroom on school days, with a hoist of at least twenty-four inches. These duties have different settings and schedules.

The flag is raised quickly and lowered slowly. A stationary staff must be at least three times the flag’s fly, or length. During hoisting, lowering, or passage in a parade, the Act calls for attention facing the flag, with the appropriate military or civilian salute described in its provisions.

When displayed with other nations’ flags, the Marshall Islands flag uses a separate staff at the same height, and the flags should be approximately equal in size. The Act gives it the central position in an odd-numbered group and the viewer’s left in an even-numbered group. Organizational flags follow different rules.

The Flag Act generally requires a Cabinet Executive Order for half-staff display on a stationary staff. Separately, the Public Holidays Act directs half-staff display on March 1 for nuclear victims remembrance. Raise the flag to the peak first, lower it to the mourning position, and raise it again before taking it down.

The Flag Act permits using the flag over a casket only when authorized by Cabinet Executive Order. It places the union at the head and over the deceased’s left shoulder. The published text also directs lowering the flag into the grave with the casket, a provision that differs from some countries’ customs.

The Act protects the physical flag from ground or water contact, added lettering, use as clothing or drapery, and other disrespectful treatment. It permits mending and cleaning, with specific drying instructions. A badly soiled or damaged flag that is no longer fit for display is subject to the Act’s disposal provision.

Yes. The Act describes folding the flag lengthwise twice, then making triangular folds from the fly toward the union. It also calls for storage that preserves and protects the flag. This direction is specific to the Marshall Islands text; another country’s rolling or folding custom should not be substituted automatically.

A vessel accepted into the Marshall Islands registry obtains Marshall Islands nationality and the right to fly its flag. The Maritime Administrator issues a certificate of registry after the required process. A ship’s flag therefore identifies its registration relationship; it does not, by itself, establish the nationality of every owner or crew member.

No. The national flag consists of its blue field, two diagonal bands, and white star. The national seal is a separate emblem incorporating additional imagery associated with the country’s people, navigation, resources, and peace. Placing the seal on the blue field would create a different graphic from the statutory national flag.

The Marshall Islands has one twenty-four-pointed star and two widening diagonal bands. The Federated States of Micronesia has four separate white stars on blue, without those bands. Nauru has a horizontal yellow line and one twelve-pointed white star below it. Count the stars and points before relying on the shared blue background.

Any size with width equal to 1.9 times height preserves the statutory rectangle. Examples include 95 by 50 centimeters, 152 by 80 centimeters, and 190 by 100 centimeters. The main PNG is 3800 by 2000 pixels. These are calculated reference sizes, not a list of mandatory manufactured products.

The flag emoji is 🇲🇭. Its Unicode sequence combines regional indicator M, U+1F1F2, with regional indicator H, U+1F1ED. A device may show a small flag or a different fallback depending on its software and fonts. Emoji artwork is convenient for messages but is not a reliable construction or color specification.

Frequent errors include reversing orange and white, using equal-width diagonal stripes, replacing the star with a sun or five-pointed star, omitting its four longer rays, and stretching the field to 2:1. Also avoid presenting illustrative digital colors as an official Cabinet standard or confusing the 1979 adoption with later independence milestones.