 Good Colours |
Gambia
A+ 90 / 100Great design and colour choice. Also represents the geography of the country (without being a map).
Good Colours |
Pakistan
A 88 / 100Best use of the star and crescent. Unfortunately, it depicts something astronomically impossible, namely the eclipse of the moon by a star. But perhaps it's not a star but a nuclear satellite-weapon aimed at India?
 Simple |
Japan
A 87 / 100A classic. Simple, to the point.
Good Colours |
 Good Shape |
Simple |
Somalia
A 86 / 100I think this one beats Vietname by just a little, owing to superior colour choice and a smaller star.
Simple |
Turkey
A 85 / 100
South Africa
A 85 / 100Colours a little eye-jarring, but overall very nice design.
Israel
A 85 / 100
Cuba
A 85 / 100
Good Shape |
Simple |
Switzerland
A 85 / 100
Simple |
Viet Nam
A 85 / 100Not quite as nice as Somalia.
 Graven Images |
Canada
A- 80 / 100Hmm... that maple leaf? A difficult question, but I think not quite stylised enough.
Faroe Islands
A- 80 / 100Nicest of the cross flags so popular in Scandinavia.
Good Shape |
North Korea
A- 80 / 100The star is very well placed with regard to the shape of the whole flag, but the overall design is just somehow lacking in zest.
Chile
A- 80 / 100
Good Colours |
Simple |
Botswana
B+ 79 / 100
Slovakia
B+ 79 / 100Quite a nice flag. Definitely beats Solvenia and Czech Republic, both of which are much nicer places to visit.
Good Colours |
Simple |
Finland
B+ 76 / 100
Saint Kitts and Nevis
B+ 76 / 100
Good Colours |
Syria
B+ 76 / 100
Puerto Rico
B+ 76 / 100
Iceland
B+ 75 / 100
Good Colours |
 Bad Tricolour |
Gabon
B+ 75 / 100
Namibia
B+ 75 / 100
Good Shape |
Qatar
B+ 75 / 100
Good Shape |
Belgium
B+ 75 / 100
Simple |
Austria
B+ 75 / 100
Simple |
Denmark
B 74 / 100
Norway
B 74 / 100
 Too many stars |
Congo (formerly Zaire)
B 74 / 100This is the one whose capital is Kinshasa.
United Arab Emirates
B 74 / 100
 Plagiarism |
 Too busy |
Liberia
B 74 / 100Not very original, but at least an improvement on the US flag.
Djibouti
B 74 / 100
 Bad Colours |
Mauritania
B 73 / 100
 Original |
Madagascar
B 73 / 100
Too many stars |
China
B 73 / 100
Bad Colours |
 Eyewatering |
Simple |
Morocco
B 72 / 100Apart from the colours, this is a nice design, pentagram is a bit adolescent though.
Good Colours |
Laos
B 71 / 100
Suriname
B 71 / 100
Good Shape |
Simple |
Monaco
B 70 / 100Yawn... Nice shape, but nearly as boring as Libya.
Plagiarism |
Bad Tricolour |
Cote D'Ivoire
B 70 / 100
Romania
B 70 / 100
Plagiarism |
Tunisia
B 70 / 100Nice design, but this star and crescent features a particularly bad astronomical impossibility.
Eyewatering |
Original |
Greece
B 70 / 100Impressively eyewatering, with only two colours.
Good Colours |
Jamaica
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
Simple |
Bahrain
B 70 / 100
Too busy |
United Kingdom
B 70 / 100
Italy
B 70 / 100
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Solomon Islands
B 70 / 100
Hungary
B 70 / 100
Original |
Simple |
Libya
B 70 / 100Did you even try?
Bad Tricolour |
Nigeria
B 70 / 100
Luxembourg
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
Venezuela
B 70 / 100
France
B 70 / 100
Simple |
Indonesia
B 70 / 100
Plagiarism |
Senegal
B 70 / 100
Bad Colours |
Tanzania, United Republic of
B 70 / 100
Sudan
B 70 / 100
The Other Congo
B 70 / 100This is the one whose capital is not Kinshasa.
Eyewatering |
Panama
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
Bad Tricolour |
Sierra Leone
B 70 / 100
Plagiarism |
Ghana
B 70 / 100
Eyewatering |
Jordan
B 70 / 100
Yemen
B 70 / 100
Bad Tricolour |
Cameroon
B 70 / 100
Bad Tricolour |
Mali
B 70 / 100
Western Sahara
B 70 / 100
Dominican Republic
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
Simple |
Haiti
B 70 / 100
Bad Colours |
Malawi
B 70 / 100
Simple |
Poland
B 70 / 100
Ireland
B 70 / 100
Czech Republic
B 70 / 100
Germany
B 70 / 100
Simple |
Taiwan
B 70 / 100
Bad Colours |
Togo
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
San Marino
B 70 / 100
Netherlands
B 70 / 100
Good Colours |
Argentina
B 70 / 100
Bad Colours |
Sweden
B- 69 / 100Too garish. (Not what we expected from the Swedes!)
Plagiarism |
Too many stars |
Honduras
B- 68 / 100
Guinea-Bissau
B- 68 / 100
Micronesia, Federated States of
B- 66 / 100
Good Shape |
Niger
B- 65 / 100
Original |
Colombia
B- 65 / 100
Plagiarism |
Bad Tricolour |
Bolivia
B- 65 / 100
Sao Tome and Principe
B- 65 / 100Black stars too adolescent.
 Weapons |
 Corporate Logo |
Angola
B- 65 / 100Machete on flag nicely depicted but not wise idea.
Bad Colours |
Original |
Maldives
B- 65 / 100That colour scheme is close to being hideous
Graven Images |
Papua New Guinea
B- 65 / 100
Too busy |
Malta
B- 65 / 100
Graven Images |
Uruguay
B- 65 / 100I like the frowning sun.
Bad Colours |
 Bad Shape |
Latvia
B- 65 / 100
Too busy |
India
B- 65 / 100
Bad Tricolour |
Chad
B- 65 / 100
Bad Colours |
Armenia
B- 65 / 100
Too busy |
Burundi
B- 65 / 100
Estonia
B- 65 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Saint Lucia
B- 65 / 100Best corporate logo. Makes me want to invest money there.
Russian Federation
B- 65 / 100
Bad Colours |
Bad Shape |
Eyewatering |
Azerbaijan
B- 65 / 100
Too many stars |
Singapore
B- 65 / 100
Original |
Kuwait
B- 65 / 100
Simple |
Benin
B- 65 / 100
Albania
B- 65 / 100
Plagiarism |
Graven Images |
Norfolk Island
B- 65 / 100Looks nice but too obviously inferior rip-off of Canada's flag.
Bad Colours |
Bahamas
B- 65 / 100Yuurgh... awful colours, but not quite as bad as Aruba.
Plagiarism |
Tonga
B- 65 / 100More effort needed here.
Bad Shape |
Yugoslavia
B- 65 / 100Serbians will have a chance to change this flag when Montenegro secedes from Yugoslavia. I suggest they take it.
Original |
Guyana
B- 65 / 100
Bad Tricolour |
Simple |
Peru
B- 65 / 100
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Netherlands Antilles
B- 65 / 100
Bad Colours |
Ukraine
B- 65 / 100
Graven Images |
Spain
B- 65 / 100Spain had a civil war over whether to keep this flag. The wrong side won.
Bad Colours |
Trinidad and Tobago
B- 65 / 100
Good Colours |
Barbados
B- 65 / 100Silly trident thing looks ridiculous.
Thailand
B- 65 / 100
Bad Colours |
Lithuania
B- 65 / 100
Guinea
B- 65 / 100
Original |
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
B- 65 / 100Good effort for a country whose name sounds like a 50s rock'n'roll group.
Bad Colours |
Eyewatering |
Burkina Faso
C+ 64 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Bosnia and Herzegovina
C+ 64 / 100
Plagiarism |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Ecuador
C+ 64 / 100The Columbian flag was not very good to begin with, fine effort from Ecuador making it worse.
Plagiarism |
Bad Colours |
Eyewatering |
Bangladesh
C+ 60 / 100
Eyewatering |
Greenland
C+ 60 / 100Possibly most eyewatering flag in existence.
Bad Colours |
Georgia
C+ 60 / 100
Good Colours |
Graven Images |
Egypt
C+ 60 / 100
Too many stars |
Too busy |
United States
C+ 60 / 100If one is good, fifty must be just right.
Eyewatering |
Algeria
C+ 60 / 100
Too busy |
Mongolia
C+ 60 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Good Shape |
Nauru
C+ 60 / 100
Good Colours |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Vanuatu
C+ 60 / 100
Bad Shape |
Original |
Nepal
C+ 60 / 100
Bad Colours |
Bulgaria
C+ 60 / 100Possibly worst traditional tricolour.
Plagiarism |
Palau
C+ 60 / 100
Too busy |
South Korea
C+ 60 / 100Looks good on a T-shirt, not on a flag.
Weapons |
 Writing! |
Graven Images |
Saudi Arabia
C+ 60 / 100
Bad Colours |
Eritrea
C+ 60 / 100
Original |
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
C+ 60 / 100Looks unfortunately like a target.
Samoa
C+ 60 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Kyrgyzstan
C 57 / 100Is that a tennis ball on this flag?
Weapons |
Graven Images |
Afghanistan
C 56 / 100This is the flag used in Afghanistan before the Russian invasion (and now used by the Northern Alliance). The Taliban flag was naver recognised by the UN (it is black and white with writing on it, and would receive a much lower grade).
Liechtenstein
C 56 / 100
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Uzbekistan
C 56 / 100
Graven Images |
Myanmar (Burma)
C 55 / 100
 Colonial Nonsense |
Too many stars |
Cook Islands
C 55 / 100
Weapons |
Eyewatering |
Too busy |
Kenya
C 55 / 100
Weapons |
Lesotho
C 55 / 100
Graven Images |
Gibraltar
C 55 / 100Nice lack of colonial nonsense for a UK territory. Still too many graven images, though.
Plagiarism |
Writing! |
Good Colours |
Iraq
C 55 / 100Best features of this flag stolen from Syria.
Too many stars |
Philippines
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
Slovenia
C 55 / 100
Weapons |
Bad Colours |
Oman
C 55 / 100
Colonial Nonsense |
Too many stars |
Australia
C 55 / 100
Colonial Nonsense |
New Zealand
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
Antigua and Barbuda
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
Costa Rica
C 55 / 100
Graven Images |
Cambodia
C 55 / 100
Graven Images |
Lebanon
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
Ethiopia
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
Croatia
C 55 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Eyewatering |
Cape Verde
C 55 / 100
Bad Shape |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Moldova, Republic of
C 55 / 100
Weapons |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Swaziland
C 55 / 100
Too busy |
French Polynesia
C- 54 / 100
Too busy |
Andorra
C- 53 / 100
Too busy |
Malaysia
C- 52 / 100
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Mexico
C- 52 / 100
Bad Colours |
Too busy |
 Makes me nauseous |
Seychelles
C- 50 / 100Urrgh... ohhh... feel sick...
Bad Colours |
Makes me nauseous |
Mauritius
C- 50 / 100"Hey, lots of countries have a tricolour, why don't we have a quadricolour?" Big mistake.
Original |
Too busy |
Central African Republic
C- 50 / 100Do not attempt to disprove the four-colour theorem on your flag! (This goes for you, too, Mauritius).
 Maps! |
Bad Colours |
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Tuvalu
D+ 49 / 100Tuvalu was previously on 50. However, I didn't realise the horrible truth about their flag. Those stars aren't in a random arrangement at all... they're in the shape of the islands that make up the country. It's a map! On the other hand much of Tuvalu will soon be underwater owing global warming, and they'll have to remove some of those stars.
Writing! |
Good Colours |
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Comoros
D+ 48 / 100
Writing! |
Graven Images |
Equatorial Guinea
D+ 45 / 100
Graven Images |
Bhutan
D+ 45 / 100
Corporate Logo |
Marshall Islands
D+ 45 / 100Looks like an airline logo.
Bad Colours |
Corporate Logo |
Too busy |
Kazakstan
D+ 45 / 100
Too busy |
Iran
D+ 45 / 100
Bad Colours |
Graven Images |
Original |
Zambia
D+ 45 / 100Interesting layout doesn't redeem the bad colours on this one.
Maps! |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Christmas Island
D 42 / 100
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Kiribati
D 41 / 100
Colonial Nonsense |
Anguilla
D 41 / 100
Weapons |
Bad Colours |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Sri Lanka
D 41 / 100They probably thought it looked 'hip' in the 70s. Thanks to Ted & Sid Traikovski for drawing my attention to the sabre held by the strange animal.
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Makes me nauseous |
Uganda
D 40 / 100
Plagiarism |
Writing! |
Bad Tricolour |
Rwanda
D 40 / 100Writing a big R on an overused tricolour spectacularly unoriginal.
Maps! |
Bad Colours |
Cyprus
D 40 / 100What can I say? The mother of all flags with maps on them.
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Turks and Caicos Islands
D 40 / 100
Bad Colours |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Dominica
D 40 / 100Do not put a picture of a parrot on your flag! (This goes for you too, Guatamala!)
Bad Shape |
Graven Images |
 Hideous Colours |
Holy See (Vatican City State)
D 40 / 100
Writing! |
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Cayman Islands
D 40 / 100
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Montserrat
D 40 / 100Features a picture of a woman crucifying a harp.
Weapons |
Writing! |
Bad Colours |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Guatemala
D 40 / 100There are so many things wrong with this flag.
Too busy |
Portugal
D 40 / 100Portugal force this uninspired effort on their territories, too.
Writing! |
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
British Virgin Islands
D 40 / 100
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Fiji
D 40 / 100Features a picture of a lion rolling a cigarette (cf. Sri Lanka)
Writing! |
Bad Shape |
Too busy |
Paraguay
D 40 / 100Name of country written on the flag. Perhaps they have the excuse that their citizens can't remember the difference between Paraguay and Uruguay either.
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Grenada
D 40 / 100What is that thing on the left?
Bad Colours |
Colonial Nonsense |
Bermuda
D 40 / 100
Writing! |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Belize
D 40 / 100
Writing! |
Bad Colours |
Bad Shape |
Graven Images |
Nicaragua
D 40 / 100It is probably lucky for Nicaragua that the vile choice of colours in this flag prevents me from seeing what's written on it.
Hideous Colours |
Aruba
D 40 / 100Yeeech! Colours designed to cause pain.
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Saint Helena
D 40 / 100It could be just me, but it looks as though the ship is underwater.
Bad Colours |
Tajikistan
D 40 / 100
Bad Colours |
Bad Shape |
Too busy |
Brunei
D 40 / 100Appears to involve a moustache sprouting from a flagpole.
Bad Shape |
Too busy |
Makes me nauseous |
Zimbabwe
D 40 / 100Features a hawk sitting on a toilet.
Bad Colours |
Too busy |
Niue
D- 39 / 100Worst colour scheme of any flag derived from the Union Jack.
Bad Colours |
Too busy |
Belarus
D- 39 / 100
Graven Images |
American Samoa
D- 39 / 100Given the awfulness of other US designed flags, they have had a lucky escape.
Writing! |
Colonial Nonsense |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Falkland Islands
D- 38 / 100Worst UK colonial flag. Has a sheep on it. Actually, if you look closely, you can see that the sheep is riding on top of an island, which is riding on top of a ship. Also the stupid slogan is in English, and is a platitude.
Eyewatering |
Too many stars |
Too busy |
Makes me nauseous |
Turkmenistan
D- 37 / 100Flag actually includes a Persian (sorry, Turkmen) carpet. Only flag to both make eyes water and induce vomiting.
Weapons |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Mozambique
D- 37 / 100Automatic weapons on a flag are especially bad. Appears to have been designed by a committee all of whom had stupid ideas for pictures of extra things to put on the flag.
Writing! |
Bad Colours |
Too busy |
El Salvador
D- 36 / 100Not only did they write the name of country on the flag, but its full mailing address, in a living language.
Writing! |
Too busy |
Brazil
D- 35 / 100Starmap original but atrocious. Worst flag of any independent nation state.
Writing! |
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Guam
F 20 / 100Name of country written on flag in ugly typeface. Notice that the M of Guam is larger than the other letters. I have given it this high a grade because it would actually make quite a nice tea towel.
Writing! |
Bad Colours |
Graven Images |
U.S. Virgin Islands
F 6 / 100Appears to have been painted by number. Another unspeakably horrible flag from a US territory.
Graven Images |
Too busy |
Northern Mariana Islands
F 2 / 100Appears to have been constructed from clip art. Truly awful.