The flags of North America
Three flags everyone knows, seven that look alike, and thirteen nobody revises. That is where the quiz is decided.
“North America” is taken here in the broad sense: Canada, the United States and Mexico, but also Central America and the Caribbean — 23 countries. That convention is the one used in French-language teaching, and it is what makes this page useful: the thirteen island states are precisely the ones people forget.
The Central American block: blue, white, blue
Five Central American countries carry three horizontal blue-white-blue bands: Guatemala (vertical bands), El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua — and you can add Argentina further south. It is no coincidence: all descend from the flag of the United Provinces of Central America, a short-lived federation from 1823 to 1841.
Telling them apart comes down to the centre: an elaborate coat of arms for Guatemala and El Salvador, five stars in an arc for Honduras, a triangle with a rainbow for Nicaragua.
The Caribbean, where points are lost
Caribbean flags are visually the most inventive in the world: the diagonals of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Saint Kitts and Nevis, the nested triangles of Saint Lucia and Dominica — the latter being the only flag in the world containing purple, thanks to its sisserou parrot.
Their difficulty is not graphic, it is statistical: in a random draw, Grenada carries exactly the same weight as the United States. Learning them as a block is the best return on the whole continent.
The Mexican case
Mexico and Italy share the same three green, white and red bands. The central coat of arms — an eagle devouring a snake on a cactus — separates them instantly, but at thumbnail size the confusion happens more often than you would think.
All 23 flags
| Flag | Country | Capital |
|---|---|---|
 | Antigua and Barbuda | Saint John's |
 | Bahamas | Nassau |
 | Barbados | Bridgetown |
 | Belize | Belmopan |
 | Canada | Ottawa |
 | Costa Rica | San José |
 | Cuba | Havana |
 | Dominica | Roseau |
 | United States | Washington, D.C. |
 | Grenada | St. George's |
 | Guatemala | Guatemala City |
 | Haiti | Port-au-Prince |
 | Honduras | Tegucigalpa |
 | Jamaica | Kingston |
 | Mexico | Mexico City |
 | Nicaragua | Managua |
 | Panama | Panama City |
 | Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo |
 | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Basseterre |
 | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Kingstown |
 | Saint Lucia | Castries |
 | El Salvador | San Salvador |
 | Trinidad and Tobago | Port of Spain |
Frequently asked
Why do Central American flags look alike?
Which is the only flag in the world with purple?
How do you tell Mexico from Italy?
Do you recognise these flags?
GeoG's Flags mode plays continent by continent: run North America on its own, or all 195 flags of the world.
Play now