Statistics on flag colors (original) (raw)

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Last modified: 2012-06-08 by rob raeside
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I have always asked myself what is the most frequent combination of colours; what is the most used colour on flags, and I decided to research frequency and quantity of colours on flags of independent countries.

The results are sorted in different categories:

1. Frequency of particular colour on researched flags
2. Area of particular colour on researched flags
3. Number of one, two three...-coloured flags
4. Frequency of particular colour combinations on researched flags

Firstly, I had to differentiate colours. I have divided them in 10 groups:

• W -white
• N - black
• R - red
• B - blue
• V - green
• Y - yellow/gold (I have merged those colours, because sometimes is hard to determine yellow from gold on certain flags)
• O - orange
• M - brown (maroon)
• G - gray
• P - purple

There are 192 flags of independent countries in the world. The most frequent are the three-coloured flags.

And the most frequent combination of colours is White/Red/Blue...

The number of flags containing particular colours are:

Sorted by area of colour:

Definitely, red is the most popular colour. The second colour, as you can see is not the same by area and by frequency (blue & white) ....... And the champions of whiteness are (results in % of flag area):

1. Cyprus - 92.23
2. Japan - 84.50
3. South Korea - 78.85
4. Israel - 65.44

Black:

1. Papua New Guinea - 49.60
2. Angola - 47.83
3. St. Kitts-Nevis - 36.28
4. Jamaica - 36.21

Red:

1. China - 97.63
2. Morocco - 97.62
3. Turkey - 93.92
4. Vietnam - 91.52

Blue:

1. Micronesia - 98.53
2. Somalia - 96.32
3. Congo DR - 93.53
4. Nauru - 92.03

Green:

1. Libya - 100.0 (absolute champion)
2. Mauritania - 90.05
3. Comoros - 88.27
4. Turkmenistan - 82.37

Yellow/Gold:

1. Brunei - 54.57
2. Spain - 52.85
3. Vatican - 52.35
4. Ecuador, Ukraine & Colombia - 50.00

Orange:

1. Bhutan - 43.50
2. Niger - 37.86
3. India, Ireland & Armenia - 33.33
4. Sri Lanka - 13.52

Gray:

1. Malta - 2.06
2. Equatorial Guinea - 1.41
3. Mexico - 0.98
4. Swaziland - 0.62

Brown:

1. Andorra - 6.05
2. Lesotho - 5.71
3. Mexico - 2.23
4. Zambia - 2.23

Purple:

1. Spain - 0.10
2. Nicaragua - 0.04
   (only two flags contain purple)

By % of flag area regardless of colour:

1. Libya - 100.00
2. Micronesia - 98.53
3. China - 97.63
4. Morocco - 97.62

There are 30 plain tribands (with equal stripes/bands) out of the countries of the world.

6 of them are "2-coloured tribands":

• Argentina
• Austria
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Nigeria
• Peru

24 are "3-coloured tribands":

• Armenia
• Belgium
• Bolivia
• Bulgaria
• Chad
• Congo
• Cote d'Ivoire
• Estonia
• France
• Gabon
• Germany
• Guinea
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Luxemburg
• Mali
• Netherlands
• Romania
• Russia
• Sierra Leone
• Yemen
• Yugoslavia

% of colour area of all tribands:

1. R - 25.81
2. W - 21.50
3. B - 19.36
4. V - 15.05
5. Y - 10.75
6. N - 4.30
7. O - 3.23

Existing combinations:

• W/R/B - 5 times
• R/V/Y - 5 times
• W/R/V - 3
• B/W/B - 3
• R/W/R - 2
• N/R/Y - 2
• R/B/Y - 2
• W/V/O - 2
• W/N/B - 1
• W/N/R - 1
• R/B/O - 1
• V/W/V - 1
• B/V/Y - 1
• W/B/V - 1 Ivan Sarajcic, 28 May 2000 and 29 May 2000