The Most Changed National Flags in History

No country has changed its flag more often. By most counts Afghanistan has flown around twenty different national flags in little more than a century — including seven changes in just four years (1926–1930), some lasting only months.

Monarchy, republic, a Soviet-backed socialist state, mujahideen factions, the Taliban and the republic again have each raised their own banner. A black-red-green tricolour recurs through many of the designs; the internationally recognised Republic flag still uses it, while the Taliban's white flag bearing the shahada has flown inside the country since 2021.

Home to the most extreme design in flag history. In 1977, Muammar Gaddafi introduced a plain green flag — the only national flag ever to be a single solid colour, with no emblem, star or stripe at all.

Before that came the monarchy's flag and Arab-nationalist designs. When Gaddafi fell in 2011, Libya restored its 1951 independence-era flag — red, black and green with a white crescent and star.

Iraq's flag has tracked its politics almost step for step — from the monarchy through Ba'athist Arab-nationalist designs to post-2003 revisions, the red-white-black tricolour has repeatedly gained and lost stars and script.

The Arabic Takbir (“God is great”) was added in 1991 — reportedly in Saddam Hussein's own handwriting — then redrawn in green Kufic script in 2008, the version used today.

Three flags for three eras. The imperial white-blue-red tricolour gave way to the Soviet red banner — with its gold hammer, sickle and star — after the 1917 revolution.

When the USSR dissolved in 1991, Russia returned to the pre-revolutionary tricolour it flies today.

Few flags mirror a nation's upheavals so closely: the imperial black-white-red, the black-red-gold of the Weimar Republic, the Nazi swastika banner, the separate flags of East and West Germany, and — since reunification in 1990 — the black-red-gold once more.

In 1994, at the end of apartheid, South Africa adopted an entirely new flag — the distinctive “Y” design in six colours — replacing the orange-white-blue that had flown since 1928. It remains one of the very few national flags with six colours.

The 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed Iran's flag. The green-white-red tricolour stayed, but a stylised emblem representing the word “Allah” replaced the old Lion and Sun, and the Takbir was repeated 22 times in Kufic script along the edges of the central band.

Formerly Burma, Myanmar replaced its socialist-era flag in 2010 with a completely new yellow-green-red tricolour bearing a large white star — part of a wider break from decades of overt military symbolism.

Egypt has revised its flag repeatedly — especially the emblem at its centre. The 1952 revolution swept away the monarchy's green flag; the red-white-black Arab Liberation colours followed, carrying in turn two green stars (as the United Arab Republic), the Hawk of Quraish, and finally the golden Eagle of Saladin used today.

Venezuela's yellow-blue-red tricolour has stayed constant, but the details keep changing: stars have been added over the years — reaching eight in 2006 — and the coat of arms has been repeatedly redrawn.

Rwanda changed its flag in 2001 to make a deliberate break with the past. The earlier red-yellow-green flag had become associated with the 1994 genocide, so a new blue-yellow-green design with a golden sun replaced it.