North Macedonia Flag: Meaning, History, Colors & Pictures

North Macedonia’s flag shows a golden-yellow sun on a red field, with eight widening rays extending toward the edges. Its height:length ratio is 1:2, and the central disk has a diameter equal to one-seventh of the length. The current design was adopted on October 5, 1995.

The flag consists of a red rectangle, a centered golden-yellow disk, and eight golden-yellow rays that widen toward the boundary. Two rays run horizontally, two vertically, and four toward the corners. A narrow red separation around the disk appears in the adopted graphic, giving the center a distinct circular outline.

The law describes the colors as red and golden-yellow. These illustrations use #D20000 for red and #FFE600 for yellow, corresponding to RGB 210, 0, 0 and RGB 255, 230, 0. Those values are declared digital reproduction choices; the law’s color words do not themselves establish hexadecimal or Pantone specifications.

The sun is commonly connected with freedom and the national anthem’s image of a new sun of liberty. Red and yellow also maintain continuity with earlier Macedonian state flags. The 1995 flag law defines the design rather than assigning a separate official meaning to every color or individual ray.

The yellow sun is generally understood as a symbol of freedom, linked to the anthem’s imagery of liberty. It is drawn as a complete disk with eight outward-widening rays. Although the former national flag also used a sun, the current device is a different design from the sixteen-rayed Vergina Sun.

North Macedonia’s current flag has eight rays: two horizontal, two vertical, and four directed toward the corners. They widen outward and are arranged in opposite pairs. The law specifies their number and directions, but it does not identify the rays as eight provinces, ethnic groups, regions, or historical leaders.

The legal height:length ratio is 1:2, so the flag is twice as long as it is high. A drawing 700 units high must therefore be 1,400 units long. Stating the measurement order prevents confusion: length:height is 2:1, which expresses the same rectangle in the opposite order.

The sun’s disk has a diameter equal to one-seventh of the flag’s length. Because the length is twice the height, the diameter is also two-sevenths of the height. On a 1,400 by 700 drawing, the disk is 200 units across and its radius is 100 units.

The sun is centered at the intersection of the rectangle’s diagonals. Its center is halfway along the length and halfway down the height. On the 1,400 by 700 master drawing, those coordinates are x = 700 and y = 350, measured from the upper-left corner of the flag.

The adopted graphic shows a red separation between the yellow disk and the eight rays. This makes the disk read as a distinct circle. The law’s text does not give a numerical gap width; the downloadable reconstruction uses a 25-unit radial clearance around a disk of 100-unit radius.

The flag should not be drawn by placing eight identical wedges at equal 45-degree intervals. Its rays are organized around horizontal, vertical, and corner-directed positions within a 1:2 rectangle. The adopted graphic gives the three sets different shapes, and a specialist reconstruction is needed to assign detailed edge coordinates.

Begin with a red 1:2 rectangle and locate its center. Add eight outward-widening yellow rays, then create the red clearance and a yellow disk whose diameter is one-seventh of the length. Use a documented construction for the ray edges, and scale every element uniformly when changing the drawing’s size.

Any size with length exactly twice the height preserves the flag’s outer proportions. Examples include 140 by 70, 700 by 350, and 1,400 by 700 units. The downloadable PNG is 5,600 by 2,800 pixels, while the SVG remains scalable. These are reproduction examples, not prescribed physical flag sizes.

The reconstructed flag has reflection symmetry across its horizontal and vertical centerlines, and it also matches itself after a half-turn. These properties follow from the centered disk and opposite pairs of matching rays. A quarter-turn changes the landscape rectangle into a portrait rectangle, so it is not the same oriented flag.

No separate reverse emblem is specified in the 1995 flag design. A mirror view of the symmetric red-and-yellow pattern looks the same as the front. There are no letters that would read backward. A manufactured flag’s seams, print density, and attachment hardware can differ without creating a different national design.

A complete quarter-turn preserves the flag’s shapes while changing its displayed outline from landscape to portrait. The circular sun remains circular, and all eight rays rotate with the field. This geometric demonstration is not a universal hanging rule; formal installations should use the responsible institution’s approved orientation and artwork.

The modern sequence runs from a red flag with a yellow-bordered red star during the Yugoslav period, through the sixteen-rayed sun flag used from 1992 to 1995, to the current eight-rayed sun adopted in October 1995. The country’s change of name in 2019 did not introduce a new flag design.

The Assembly adopted the current flag law on October 5, 1995. It was published in Official Gazette number 47 on October 6, and the law provided for entry into force on publication. Adoption, publication, and first ceremonial hoisting are different events, so their dates should not be silently substituted for one another.

Between 1992 and 1995, the country used a red flag bearing a golden sixteen-rayed sun, commonly called the Vergina Sun or Sun of Kutleš. Its compact central emblem differed from the current eight broad rays reaching the edges. The earlier flag is historical and should be dated whenever it is illustrated.

The change followed the Interim Accord between Greece and the then Republic of Macedonia, signed on September 13, 1995. Article 7 required the latter state to stop using the symbol displayed on its previous flag. A new national law then established the eight-rayed sun design while retaining red and yellow.

Miroslav Grčev developed proposals for the 1995 flag, but the adopted version differs from his proposal. Research by the Macedonian Heraldic Society also identifies Kostadin Tančev–Dinkata with the final design and recommends a combined attribution. Their accounts of authorship differ, so naming a single undisputed designer would oversimplify the evidence.

No new national flag design accompanied the country’s change of name to the Republic of North Macedonia in February 2019. The eight-rayed flag remained the design adopted in 1995. The Prespa Agreement was signed in June 2018 and entered into force on February 12, 2019, separating the name-change timeline from flag adoption.

Article 8 of the Prespa Agreement addresses the symbol shown on the former national flag. It provides for its removal from public sites and public usages in the state’s territory, while excluding archaeological artifacts from that provision. This concerns the earlier symbol; it does not replace the current eight-rayed flag.

The national anthem, Denes nad Makedonija, is commonly translated as Today over Macedonia. Its opening imagery connects a new sun with liberty, which helps explain the sun’s symbolic reading on the flag. The anthem is a musical state symbol with its own history; it does not prescribe the flag’s geometric measurements.

The national flag and the state coat of arms are separate symbols. The flag is a red-and-yellow sunburst, while the coat of arms contains a landscape and surrounding plant elements. North Macedonia’s ordinary national flag does not carry that coat of arms inside its sun or elsewhere on the field.

Look for a wide red rectangle with a yellow central disk and eight yellow rays expanding all the way to the edges. The combination of a centered sunburst, two colors, and 1:2 proportions is distinctive. A red-and-yellow image alone is insufficient; check the ray count and the full arrangement.

A square or circular crop can function as a decorative icon, but it removes parts of the national flag’s 1:2 rectangle and may cut off rays. For an accurate reference picture, preserve the entire flag. Fit it inside the available space with margins instead of stretching or cropping the original artwork.

Use SVG when you need a scalable illustration with crisp circles and ray edges. Use PNG when your software requires a raster image or when inserting a ready-sized picture. Both supplied formats show the same reconstruction. Preserve the 1:2 aspect ratio, retain relevant captions, and avoid repeated resizing of the PNG.

Check the complete rectangle, two colors, eight rays, centered disk, and undistorted proportions before using the image. For formal display, follow the relevant institution’s instructions and approved artwork. The educational files explain their construction choices; they do not establish a complete national protocol for ceremonies, mourning, commercial use, or manufactured products.

Common errors include using sixteen rays for the current flag, making the disk one-seventh of the height, stretching the circle into an oval, omitting the red separation, and treating 2019 as the adoption year. Another mistake is presenting reconstructed ray coordinates or chosen screen colors as numbers explicitly prescribed by the law.