Every country flag emoji is on this page, grouped by region so you can find and copy one in a few seconds. There are 259 country, territory and special flags in all.
If a flag turns into two letters like “PK” or “US”, you’re almost certainly on Windows. Nothing is broken: the flag is still in the text, and Windows just can’t draw it.
Most popular flag emojis
🇺🇸 United States · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom · 🇨🇦 Canada · 🇦🇺 Australia · 🇳🇿 New Zealand · 🇮🇪 Ireland · 🇮🇳 India · 🇵🇰 Pakistan · 🇧🇩 Bangladesh · 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka · 🇳🇵 Nepal · 🇨🇳 China · 🇯🇵 Japan · 🇰🇷 South Korea · 🇹🇭 Thailand · 🇻🇳 Vietnam · 🇮🇩 Indonesia · 🇵🇭 Philippines · 🇲🇾 Malaysia · 🇸🇬 Singapore · 🇩🇪 Germany · 🇫🇷 France · 🇮🇹 Italy · 🇪🇸 Spain · 🇵🇹 Portugal · 🇳🇱 Netherlands · 🇸🇪 Sweden · 🇳🇴 Norway · 🇨🇭 Switzerland · 🇧🇷 Brazil · 🇲🇽 Mexico · 🇦🇷 Argentina · 🇨🇴 Colombia · 🇷🇺 Russia · 🇺🇦 Ukraine · 🇹🇷 Türkiye · 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia · 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates · 🇪🇬 Egypt · 🇳🇬 Nigeria · 🇿🇦 South Africa · 🇰🇪 Kenya
Copy every flag at once
Select the whole line below and copy it. It holds every country, territory and special flag, but not England, Scotland or Wales, which are further down.
🇦🇫 🇦🇽 🇦🇱 🇩🇿 🇦🇸 🇦🇩 🇦🇴 🇦🇮 🇦🇶 🇦🇬 🇦🇷 🇦🇲 🇦🇼 🇦🇨 🇦🇺 🇦🇹 🇦🇿 🇧🇸 🇧🇭 🇧🇩 🇧🇧 🇧🇾 🇧🇪 🇧🇿 🇧🇯 🇧🇲 🇧🇹 🇧🇴 🇧🇦 🇧🇼 🇧🇻 🇧🇷 🇮🇴 🇻🇬 🇧🇳 🇧🇬 🇧🇫 🇧🇮 🇰🇭 🇨🇲 🇨🇦 🇮🇨 🇨🇻 🇧🇶 🇰🇾 🇨🇫 🇪🇦 🇹🇩 🇨🇱 🇨🇳 🇨🇽 🇨🇵 🇨🇨 🇨🇴 🇰🇲 🇨🇰 🇨🇷 🇨🇮 🇭🇷 🇨🇺 🇨🇼 🇨🇾 🇨🇿 🇩🇰 🇩🇬 🇩🇯 🇩🇲 🇩🇴 🇨🇩 🇪🇨 🇪🇬 🇸🇻 🇬🇶 🇪🇷 🇪🇪 🇸🇿 🇪🇹 🇪🇺 🇫🇰 🇫🇴 🇫🇯 🇫🇮 🇫🇷 🇬🇫 🇵🇫 🇹🇫 🇬🇦 🇬🇲 🇬🇪 🇩🇪 🇬🇭 🇬🇮 🇬🇷 🇬🇱 🇬🇩 🇬🇵 🇬🇺 🇬🇹 🇬🇬 🇬🇳 🇬🇼 🇬🇾 🇭🇹 🇭🇲 🇭🇳 🇭🇰 🇭🇺 🇮🇸 🇮🇳 🇮🇩 🇮🇷 🇮🇶 🇮🇪 🇮🇲 🇮🇱 🇮🇹 🇯🇲 🇯🇵 🇯🇪 🇯🇴 🇰🇿 🇰🇪 🇰🇮 🇽🇰 🇰🇼 🇰🇬 🇱🇦 🇱🇻 🇱🇧 🇱🇸 🇱🇷 🇱🇾 🇱🇮 🇱🇹 🇱🇺 🇲🇴 🇲🇬 🇲🇼 🇲🇾 🇲🇻 🇲🇱 🇲🇹 🇲🇭 🇲🇶 🇲🇷 🇲🇺 🇾🇹 🇲🇽 🇫🇲 🇲🇩 🇲🇨 🇲🇳 🇲🇪 🇲🇸 🇲🇦 🇲🇿 🇲🇲 🇳🇦 🇳🇷 🇳🇵 🇳🇱 🇳🇨 🇳🇿 🇳🇮 🇳🇪 🇳🇬 🇳🇺 🇳🇫 🇰🇵 🇲🇰 🇲🇵 🇳🇴 🇴🇲 🇵🇰 🇵🇼 🇵🇸 🇵🇦 🇵🇬 🇵🇾 🇵🇪 🇵🇭 🇵🇳 🇵🇱 🇵🇹 🇵🇷 🇶🇦 🇨🇬 🇷🇪 🇷🇴 🇷🇺 🇷🇼 🇧🇱 🇰🇳 🇱🇨 🇲🇫 🇵🇲 🇻🇨 🇼🇸 🇸🇲 🇸🇹 🇨🇶 🇸🇦 🇸🇳 🇷🇸 🇸🇨 🇸🇱 🇸🇬 🇸🇽 🇸🇰 🇸🇮 🇸🇧 🇸🇴 🇿🇦 🇬🇸 🇰🇷 🇸🇸 🇪🇸 🇱🇰 🇸🇭 🇸🇩 🇸🇷 🇸🇯 🇸🇪 🇨🇭 🇸🇾 🇹🇼 🇹🇯 🇹🇿 🇹🇭 🇹🇱 🇹🇬 🇹🇰 🇹🇴 🇹🇹 🇹🇦 🇹🇳 🇹🇷 🇹🇲 🇹🇨 🇹🇻 🇺🇬 🇺🇦 🇦🇪 🇬🇧 🇺🇳 🇺🇸 🇺🇾 🇺🇲 🇻🇮 🇺🇿 🇻🇺 🇻🇦 🇻🇪 🇻🇳 🇼🇫 🇪🇭 🇾🇪 🇿🇲 🇿🇼World flag emojis by region
Within each region the flags run A–Z. Press Ctrl + F (Cmd + F on a Mac) and type a name or the two-letter code to jump straight to one. Where a place goes by more than one name, both appear, so “Turkey” and “Türkiye” both work.
Regions are a convenience. A few countries, like Russia, Turkey and Cyprus, sit across more than one, and I’ve placed each where it’s most commonly listed.
Africa (58)
🇩🇿 Algeria (DZ) · 🇦🇴 Angola (AO) · 🇧🇯 Benin (BJ) · 🇧🇼 Botswana (BW) · 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso (BF) · 🇧🇮 Burundi (BI) · 🇨🇲 Cameroon (CM) · 🇨🇻 Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) (CV) · 🇨🇫 Central African Republic (CF) · 🇹🇩 Chad (TD) · 🇰🇲 Comoros (KM) · 🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) (CI) · 🇩🇯 Djibouti (DJ) · 🇨🇩 DR Congo (Congo-Kinshasa) (CD) · 🇪🇬 Egypt (EG) · 🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea (GQ) · 🇪🇷 Eritrea (ER) · 🇸🇿 Eswatini (Swaziland) (SZ) · 🇪🇹 Ethiopia (ET) · 🇬🇦 Gabon (GA) · 🇬🇲 Gambia (GM) · 🇬🇭 Ghana (GH) · 🇬🇳 Guinea (GN) · 🇬🇼 Guinea-Bissau (GW) · 🇰🇪 Kenya (KE) · 🇱🇸 Lesotho (LS) · 🇱🇷 Liberia (LR) · 🇱🇾 Libya (LY) · 🇲🇬 Madagascar (MG) · 🇲🇼 Malawi (MW) · 🇲🇱 Mali (ML) · 🇲🇷 Mauritania (MR) · 🇲🇺 Mauritius (MU) · 🇾🇹 Mayotte (YT) · 🇲🇦 Morocco (MA) · 🇲🇿 Mozambique (MZ) · 🇳🇦 Namibia (NA) · 🇳🇪 Niger (NE) · 🇳🇬 Nigeria (NG) · 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville) (CG) · 🇷🇪 Réunion (RE) · 🇷🇼 Rwanda (RW) · 🇸🇹 São Tomé & Príncipe (ST) · 🇸🇳 Senegal (SN) · 🇸🇨 Seychelles (SC) · 🇸🇱 Sierra Leone (SL) · 🇸🇴 Somalia (SO) · 🇿🇦 South Africa (ZA) · 🇸🇸 South Sudan (SS) · 🇸🇭 St. Helena (with Ascension & Tristan da Cunha) (SH) · 🇸🇩 Sudan (SD) · 🇹🇿 Tanzania (TZ) · 🇹🇬 Togo (TG) · 🇹🇳 Tunisia (TN) · 🇺🇬 Uganda (UG) · 🇪🇭 Western Sahara (EH) · 🇿🇲 Zambia (ZM) · 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe (ZW)
Asia & Middle East (54)
🇦🇫 Afghanistan (AF) · 🇦🇲 Armenia (AM) · 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan (AZ) · 🇧🇭 Bahrain (BH) · 🇧🇩 Bangladesh (BD) · 🇧🇹 Bhutan (BT) · 🇮🇴 British Indian Ocean Territory (IO) · 🇧🇳 Brunei (BN) · 🇰🇭 Cambodia (KH) · 🇨🇳 China (CN) · 🇨🇽 Christmas Island (CX) · 🇨🇨 Cocos (Keeling) Islands (CC) · 🇨🇾 Cyprus (CY) · 🇬🇪 Georgia (GE) · 🇭🇰 Hong Kong SAR China (HK) · 🇮🇳 India (IN) · 🇮🇩 Indonesia (ID) · 🇮🇷 Iran (IR) · 🇮🇶 Iraq (IQ) · 🇮🇱 Israel (IL) · 🇯🇵 Japan (JP) · 🇯🇴 Jordan (JO) · 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan (KZ) · 🇰🇼 Kuwait (KW) · 🇰🇬 Kyrgyzstan (KG) · 🇱🇦 Laos (LA) · 🇱🇧 Lebanon (LB) · 🇲🇴 Macao SAR China (MO) · 🇲🇾 Malaysia (MY) · 🇲🇻 Maldives (MV) · 🇲🇳 Mongolia (MN) · 🇲🇲 Myanmar (Burma) (MM) · 🇳🇵 Nepal (NP) · 🇰🇵 North Korea (KP) · 🇴🇲 Oman (OM) · 🇵🇰 Pakistan (PK) · 🇵🇸 Palestine (Palestinian Territories) (PS) · 🇵🇭 Philippines (PH) · 🇶🇦 Qatar (QA) · 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia (SA) · 🇸🇬 Singapore (SG) · 🇰🇷 South Korea (KR) · 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka (LK) · 🇸🇾 Syria (SY) · 🇹🇼 Taiwan (TW) · 🇹🇯 Tajikistan (TJ) · 🇹🇭 Thailand (TH) · 🇹🇱 Timor-Leste (East Timor) (TL) · 🇹🇷 Türkiye (Turkey) (TR) · 🇹🇲 Turkmenistan (TM) · 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (AE) · 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan (UZ) · 🇻🇳 Vietnam (VN) · 🇾🇪 Yemen (YE)
Europe (55)
🇦🇽 Åland Islands (AX) · 🇦🇱 Albania (AL) · 🇦🇩 Andorra (AD) · 🇦🇹 Austria (AT) · 🇧🇾 Belarus (BY) · 🇧🇪 Belgium (BE) · 🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina (BA) · 🇧🇬 Bulgaria (BG) · 🇭🇷 Croatia (HR) · 🇨🇿 Czechia (Czech Republic) (CZ) · 🇩🇰 Denmark (DK) · 🇪🇪 Estonia (EE) · 🇫🇴 Faroe Islands (FO) · 🇫🇮 Finland (FI) · 🇫🇷 France (FR) · 🇩🇪 Germany (DE) · 🇬🇮 Gibraltar (GI) · 🇬🇷 Greece (GR) · 🇬🇬 Guernsey (GG) · 🇭🇺 Hungary (HU) · 🇮🇸 Iceland (IS) · 🇮🇪 Ireland (IE) · 🇮🇲 Isle of Man (IM) · 🇮🇹 Italy (IT) · 🇯🇪 Jersey (JE) · 🇽🇰 Kosovo (XK) · 🇱🇻 Latvia (LV) · 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein (LI) · 🇱🇹 Lithuania (LT) · 🇱🇺 Luxembourg (LU) · 🇲🇹 Malta (MT) · 🇲🇩 Moldova (MD) · 🇲🇨 Monaco (MC) · 🇲🇪 Montenegro (ME) · 🇳🇱 Netherlands (NL) · 🇲🇰 North Macedonia (MK) · 🇳🇴 Norway (NO) · 🇵🇱 Poland (PL) · 🇵🇹 Portugal (PT) · 🇷🇴 Romania (RO) · 🇷🇺 Russia (RU) · 🇸🇲 San Marino (SM) · 🇷🇸 Serbia (RS) · 🇸🇰 Slovakia (SK) · 🇸🇮 Slovenia (SI) · 🇪🇸 Spain (ES) · 🇸🇯 Svalbard & Jan Mayen (SJ) · 🇸🇪 Sweden (SE) · 🇨🇭 Switzerland (CH) · 🇺🇦 Ukraine (UA) · 🇬🇧 United Kingdom (GB) · 🇻🇦 Vatican City (Holy See) (VA) · 🏴 England · 🏴 Scotland · 🏴 Wales
North America & Caribbean (41)
🇦🇮 Anguilla (AI) · 🇦🇬 Antigua & Barbuda (AG) · 🇦🇼 Aruba (AW) · 🇧🇸 Bahamas (BS) · 🇧🇧 Barbados (BB) · 🇧🇿 Belize (BZ) · 🇧🇲 Bermuda (BM) · 🇻🇬 British Virgin Islands (VG) · 🇨🇦 Canada (CA) · 🇧🇶 Caribbean Netherlands (BQ) · 🇰🇾 Cayman Islands (KY) · 🇨🇷 Costa Rica (CR) · 🇨🇺 Cuba (CU) · 🇨🇼 Curaçao (CW) · 🇩🇲 Dominica (DM) · 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic (DO) · 🇸🇻 El Salvador (SV) · 🇬🇱 Greenland (GL) · 🇬🇩 Grenada (GD) · 🇬🇵 Guadeloupe (GP) · 🇬🇹 Guatemala (GT) · 🇭🇹 Haiti (HT) · 🇭🇳 Honduras (HN) · 🇯🇲 Jamaica (JM) · 🇲🇶 Martinique (MQ) · 🇲🇽 Mexico (MX) · 🇲🇸 Montserrat (MS) · 🇳🇮 Nicaragua (NI) · 🇵🇦 Panama (PA) · 🇵🇷 Puerto Rico (PR) · 🇧🇱 Saint Barthélemy (BL) · 🇰🇳 Saint Kitts & Nevis (KN) · 🇱🇨 Saint Lucia (LC) · 🇲🇫 Saint Martin (MF) · 🇵🇲 Saint Pierre & Miquelon (PM) · 🇻🇨 Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (VC) · 🇸🇽 Sint Maarten (SX) · 🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago (TT) · 🇹🇨 Turks & Caicos Islands (TC) · 🇺🇸 United States (US) · 🇻🇮 US Virgin Islands (VI)
South America (15)
🇦🇷 Argentina (AR) · 🇧🇴 Bolivia (BO) · 🇧🇷 Brazil (BR) · 🇨🇱 Chile (CL) · 🇨🇴 Colombia (CO) · 🇪🇨 Ecuador (EC) · 🇫🇰 Falkland Islands (FK) · 🇬🇫 French Guiana (GF) · 🇬🇾 Guyana (GY) · 🇵🇾 Paraguay (PY) · 🇵🇪 Peru (PE) · 🇬🇸 South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands (GS) · 🇸🇷 Suriname (SR) · 🇺🇾 Uruguay (UY) · 🇻🇪 Venezuela (VE)
Oceania, Antarctica & remote islands (30)
🇦🇸 American Samoa (AS) · 🇦🇶 Antarctica (AQ) · 🇦🇺 Australia (AU) · 🇧🇻 Bouvet Island (BV) · 🇨🇰 Cook Islands (CK) · 🇫🇯 Fiji (FJ) · 🇵🇫 French Polynesia (PF) · 🇹🇫 French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TF) · 🇬🇺 Guam (GU) · 🇭🇲 Heard Island & McDonald Islands (HM) · 🇰🇮 Kiribati (KI) · 🇲🇭 Marshall Islands (MH) · 🇫🇲 Micronesia (FM) · 🇳🇷 Nauru (NR) · 🇳🇨 New Caledonia (NC) · 🇳🇿 New Zealand (NZ) · 🇳🇺 Niue (NU) · 🇳🇫 Norfolk Island (NF) · 🇲🇵 Northern Mariana Islands (MP) · 🇵🇼 Palau (PW) · 🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea (PG) · 🇵🇳 Pitcairn Islands (PN) · 🇼🇸 Samoa (WS) · 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands (SB) · 🇹🇰 Tokelau (TK) · 🇹🇴 Tonga (TO) · 🇹🇻 Tuvalu (TV) · 🇺🇲 US Outlying Islands (UM) · 🇻🇺 Vanuatu (VU) · 🇼🇫 Wallis & Futuna (WF)
Special flags (9)
🇦🇨 Ascension Island (AC) · 🇮🇨 Canary Islands (IC) · 🇪🇦 Ceuta & Melilla (EA) · 🇨🇵 Clipperton Island (CP) · 🇩🇬 Diego Garcia (DG) · 🇪🇺 European Union (EU) · 🇨🇶 Sark (CQ) · 🇹🇦 Tristan da Cunha (TA) · 🇺🇳 United Nations (UN)
Flag emoji showing as letters? The Windows fix
Why it happens
Windows doesn’t show national flag emojis. Emojipedia says it never has, and a Microsoft support reply confirms its emoji font, Segoe UI Emoji, has no graphical national flags. So instead of a picture you get the region’s two letters, often in a little box.
The flag itself isn’t lost. The text you copied still contains it, and the reader’s device decides whether to draw it. Copy a flag from this page on Windows, paste it into a message, and it will show as a flag for anyone on an iPhone or Android phone. Going the other way, a Windows reader sees “US” where everyone else sees 🇺🇸.
What to do about it
| Where the flag is viewed | What you’ll typically see | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone, iPad, Mac | Flag image | Nothing |
| Android | Flag image | Nothing |
| Windows browsers and apps | Two letters, like “FR” | Add the country name in words, or use an image |
| Microsoft Office on Windows | Two letters | Insert a picture of the flag |
| Firefox on Windows | Reported to show its own flag images | Test it yourself |
| Discord on Windows | Flags in chat, letters in nicknames (per a Discord community post) | Expect nicknames to differ |
Behaviour changes between versions, so test on the devices your readers actually use.
For a website, newsletter or slide deck where everyone has to see the flag, use a small SVG or PNG image instead of the emoji. For a quick message, keep the emoji and put the country name next to it.
How to type a flag emoji
- iPhone: tap a text field, then the emoji button or globe key. Swipe through the category icons at the bottom, or type in the Search Emoji field (Apple Support).
- Android: tap the emoji icon on your keyboard (Google). Categories and search differ between keyboard apps, so if you can’t spot the flags, copy one from this page.
- Mac: press Command + Control + Space to open the emoji picker, then search by name. Tech Advisor points out that emoji names don’t always match the pictures. Office Watch also describes scrolling to the Flags section.
- Windows: the emoji panel (Windows key + period) won’t give you country flags. Office Watch notes that searching for a country may show other emojis but not its flag. Copy from this page instead.
- Chat apps: many accept a text shortcode. According to Character Codes,
:flag_us:works on Discord and:flag-us:on Slack, and:us:works on GitHub, Discord and Slack. Check your own app, since formats differ.
Flags that aren’t countries
Some flag emojis aren’t sovereign states. A couple are international bodies, and the rest use region codes that ISO or Unicode set aside for special cases.
| Emoji | Name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 🇪🇺 | European Union | Added alongside country flags |
| 🇺🇳 | United Nations | Added alongside country flags |
| 🇽🇰 | Kosovo | “XK” is used in practice but isn’t an official ISO country code |
| 🇦🇨 | Ascension Island | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇹🇦 | Tristan da Cunha | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇩🇬 | Diego Garcia | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇮🇨 | Canary Islands | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇪🇦 | Ceuta & Melilla | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇨🇵 | Clipperton Island | ISO-reserved code |
| 🇨🇶 | Sark | The newest, added in Emoji 16.0 (September 2024) |
Sark is the odd one. Unicode said in 2022 it would stop accepting flag proposals, yet Emoji 16.0 still included Sark, through its automatic recommendation process. Emojipedia calls it the first new national or regional flag added that way since flags were formally approved in 2015.
England, Scotland and Wales flag emojis
The three UK nations have their own flags, but they’re built differently from country flags: a black flag followed by hidden tag characters, a method Unicode approved in Emoji 5.0.
| Emoji | Name |
|---|---|
| 🏴 | Flag: England |
| 🏴 | Flag: Scotland |
| 🏴 | Flag: Wales |
More parts means less reliable support. On Windows they commonly turn into a plain black flag 🏴. For the UK as a whole, use 🇬🇧.
Northern Ireland has no flag emoji. Emojipedia noted at approval time that it has no official flag, so it was never proposed, and Emojipedia says no major vendor supports one. Other regional flags are mostly out too: as of 2021, England, Scotland and Wales were the only subdivision flags in the recommended set, and Texas works only in WhatsApp. Emojipedia notes WhatsApp’s custom region codes show up as plain letters on other platforms.
Is there one “world flag” emoji?
No official one. These come closest:
| Emoji | Name | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇳 | Flag: United Nations | Global cooperation, international bodies |
| 🌍 🌎 🌏 | Globe Showing Europe-Africa / Americas / Asia-Australia | “Worldwide,” travel, the planet |
| 🎌 | Crossed Flags | Celebration, commonly Japan-related |
For “around the world,” most people reach for a globe, and the one you pick just depends on which part of the map you want to show.
Non-country flags and what they signal
These are everyday meanings, not official definitions, and tone depends on the conversation.
| Emoji | Name | Commonly suggests |
|---|---|---|
| 🚩 | Triangular Flag | A warning, a “red flag” |
| 🏴 | Black Flag | Mourning, protest or defiance, depending on context |
| 🏳️ | White Flag | Surrender, truce, giving up |
| 🏁 | Chequered Flag | Motor racing, crossing a finish line |
| 🎌 | Crossed Flags | Celebration, often Japan |
| 🏴☠️ | Pirate Flag | Pirates, or pirate-themed sports teams |
| 🏳️🌈 | Rainbow Flag | LGBTQ+ pride and allyship |
| 🏳️⚧️ | Transgender Flag | Transgender pride and allyship |
| ⛳ | Flag in Hole | Golf |
The rainbow and transgender flags are sequences that join the white flag to another symbol, so older software can split them into two pieces.
One oddity: 🎌 shows Japanese flags on the major platforms today, but Emojipedia says it once appeared as South Korean flags on older Samsung devices. Platform artwork can surprise you.
What a country flag means in a message
By itself, a country flag just names a place. The words around it decide what you’re saying. These chats are made up, but they cover the three ways flags usually get used.
Pointing at a place. Noor: Landed! 🇯🇵 Hamza: Bring me snacks. Noor could have typed “Japan.” The flag is only quicker.
Picking a side. Leo: Who are you backing tonight? Ava: 🇧🇷 all the way ⚽ Same kind of emoji, different job. The ⚽ is what tells you it’s about sport and not a holiday.
Saying where you’re from. Bio line: Born in Lahore 🇵🇰, living in Toronto 🇨🇦 Two flags side by side usually read as origin and current home. The order isn’t a ranking.
One thing to keep in mind: some flags belong to places whose status is disputed, and readers may take your choice as a statement even if you didn’t mean one. For a wide audience, like a brand post or a work channel, name the place in words or skip the flag. Among friends who know you, it’s usually fine.
How a flag emoji is built (for the curious and for developers)
Unicode didn’t create a character for every country. It made 26 “regional indicator” symbols, one per letter A–Z, and told platforms to join two of them into a flag whenever they spell a valid ISO 3166-1 country code. Put 🇯 and 🇵 together and you get 🇯🇵.
That’s why flags behave the way they do. A flag emoji stands for a region code, not one fixed design, so Apple, Google and others each draw their own artwork and can change it without a new character. And a letter pair that isn’t a recognised code simply stays as two letters.
If you work with the code points or HTML:
| Flag | Code points | HTML entity |
|---|---|---|
| 🇵🇰 Pakistan | U+1F1F5 U+1F1F0 | 🇵🇰 |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | U+1F1EF U+1F1F5 | 🇯🇵 |
| 🇺🇸 United States | U+1F1FA U+1F1F8 | 🇺🇸 |
| 🏴 England | U+1F3F4 U+E0067 U+E0062 U+E0065 U+E006E U+E0067 U+E007F | 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 |
On a website, don’t rely on these for display. Windows visitors will see letters, so a small SVG or PNG flag is the safer choice. Some apps handle this themselves by shipping their own flag images; a Discord community post says Discord does it in chat messages.
Frequently asked questions
How many flag emojis are there?
259 country, territory and special flags, which matches the count on Emojiterra. That includes the EU, UN and Kosovo. England, Scotland and Wales are extra and are built differently.
Why does the same flag look different on my phone and my friend’s?
Because each platform draws its own artwork for the same region code. The flag is the same; the illustration isn’t.
Why do some countries have two names in lists?
Lists disagree on naming. You’ll see Türkiye or Turkey, Czechia or Czech Republic, Côte d’Ivoire or Ivory Coast, Eswatini or Swaziland. They all point to the same flag emoji.
Can I request a flag emoji for a place that doesn’t have one?
Realistically, no. Unicode announced in 2022 that it would no longer accept flag proposals. Sark’s 2024 arrival came through the automatic recommendation process, not a proposal.
Which flag should I use for the United Kingdom?
Use 🇬🇧 for the UK as a whole. For England, Scotland or Wales specifically, use their own flags, keeping in mind that older systems may show a plain black flag.
Shahzad is a digital communication writer at Emjivo.com, passionate about emoji meanings, texting slang, and online expressions. Alex creates simple, helpful guides to help readers understand emojis and communicate better in everyday conversations.
