Flag of Poland
Native & traditional name: Flaga Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej
| Flag | Poland (PL) |
|---|---|
| Type | National flag (national, civil) |
| Proportion | 5:8 (5:8) |
| Primary colors | white, red |
| Main symbol | None (geometric bands) |
| Arrangement | horizontal bicolor (white · red) |
| Official adoption | 1919-08-01 — Adopted by the Legislative Sejm of the Second Polish Republic; color coordinates updated in the Coat of Arms, Colors and Anthem Act of 1980 |
| Region | Eastern Europe |
Plain-language visual description
Poland's national flag is a 5:8 rectangular horizontal bicolor consisting of an upper stripe of silver-white above a lower stripe of crimson red.
Construction and geometry
Proportion & symmetry: The Flag of Poland uses a statutory 5:8 height-to-width ratio on a rectangular field with vertical mirror symmetry. 5:8 rectangle divided into two equal horizontal stripes: white on top and crimson red on the bottom.
- Ratio is 5:8 with two equal horizontal bands: white on top, crimson on the bottom (the inverse of Indonesia and Monaco).
- Attachment No. 2 to the 1980 Act specifies Polish colors using scientific CIE 1976 trichromatic coordinates (xyY / CIELUV) rather than Pantone numbers.
Official colors and specification system
Rather than manufacturing false RGB precision where a statute specifies dyed cloth, Pantone, Munsell, or CIE coordinates, the table below records the governing color system alongside a calibrated display hex approximation.
| Color | Official shade name | Specification system | Statutory / standard code | Display hex |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| white | Silver-White (Biel) | cielab | CIE 1976 (Y=82.0, x=0.315, y=0.320) | #FFFFFF |
| red | Crimson (Karmazyn / Cynober) | cielab | CIE 1976 (Y=16.0, x=0.570, y=0.305) | #DC143C |
Meaning and symbolism
Documented symbolism
Under Polish heraldic law, the two colors are derived directly from the tinctures of the coat of arms of Poland: the white stripe represents the silver-white crowned eagle (charge), and the red stripe represents the crimson shield (field) on which the eagle stands.
Common interpretations
Popular civic tradition often interprets the upper white stripe as the desire for peace and moral purity and the lower crimson stripe as the blood shed by Polish generations defending independence.
History and design evolution
White and red have been associated with the Kingdom of Poland since the thirteenth-century Piast dynasty adopted the White Eagle on a red shield. On 3 May 1792, during the first anniversary of the Constitution of 3 May, patriotic citizens in Warsaw wore white-and-red ribbons and sashes, and on 7 February 1831—during the November Uprising—the Polish Sejm formally enacted white and red as the national cockade colors, marking the first statutory regulation of Polish national colors.
Following the restoration of Polish sovereignty after World War I, the Legislative Sejm enacted the national flag on 1 August 1919 as two equal horizontal stripes of white over red in a 5:8 ratio, plus a state/maritime variant bearing the national coat of arms in the center of the white band.
While the exact shade of red shifted from crimson (1921) to vermilion (1927), the 1980 Coat of Arms, Colors and Anthem Act restored a deeper crimson defined by precise CIE colorimetric coordinates.
Key historical milestones
- 1831Sejm resolution on national cockade: The Sejm declares white and red the official national colors based on the Polish-Lithuanian heraldic tinctures.
- 1919Second Polish Republic Flag Act: Enacts the 5:8 white-over-red horizontal bicolor on 1 August 1919.
- 1980CIE colorimetric standardization: The 1980 Act defines the silver-white and crimson shades using CIE 1976 coordinates.
Frequently confused with
The Flag of Poland is commonly confused with the following national flags due to shared colors, stripe geometry, or central emblems:
Visually and structurally similar flags
Ranked deterministically across layout family (35%), color overlap and stripe order (25%), symbols (20%), aspect ratio (10%), and stripe/symmetry geometry (10%):
Sources and image-rights provenance
- Sejm of the Republic of Poland — Act of 31 January 1980 on the Coat of Arms, Colors and Anthem
- Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage — National Symbols
SVG artwork provenance: Constructed from statutory specifications (public-domain-statute, verified 2026-10-13, SHA-256 a988f6d76f7c…).