Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa and one of the world's oldest nations, having successfully resisted European colonisation by defeating Italy at the Battle of Adwa in 1896. It is the second most populous country in Africa and the most populous landlocked country in the world. Ethiopia is widely considered the birthplace of coffee and is home to some of humanity's earliest known fossil remains, including the famous 'Lucy' skeleton discovered in 1974.
Population and area are rounded.
Green, yellow and red have been Ethiopia's colours since the late 19th century. Because Ethiopia resisted colonisation, they became the model for the Pan-African colours used by many countries at independence. The blue disc with a yellow star, added in 1996, represents the unity and equality of the nations and peoples of Ethiopia.
Horizontal green-yellow-red with a blue disc and yellow star in the centre.
Ethiopia is the only African country never to be colonised — it defeated Italy at the Battle of Adwa in 1896.
Ethiopia's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:
Every flag that has flown over Ethiopia, from today back through time.
A 2009 standardization fixed the current national emblem — a gold rayed pentagram on a blue disc — whose rays symbolize the equality and unity of Ethiopia's peoples. The red-yellow-green is one of the world's oldest tricolors.
The current design debuted in 1996, adding the gold pentagram on a blue disc; the shade and proportions were tweaked over the following years.
When Mengistu's People's Democratic Republic was proclaimed in 1987, a state emblem with a red star, gear, and rising sun was added.
From 1975 the military Derg flew the bare red-yellow-green tricolour with no emblem, stripping away all imperial symbolism.
Menelik II fixed the tricolour in 1897; from 1914 it bore the crowned Lion of Judah holding a cross-tipped staff, emblem of the Solomonic dynasty — interrupted only by the Italian occupation of 1936–1941.
Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Ethiopia.
The crowned Lion of Judah symbolized the Solomonic dynasty's claimed descent from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Its green-yellow-red became the model for Pan-African colors.
An independent walled city-state in eastern Ethiopia, a revered centre of Islamic learning, until Emperor Menelik II conquered it in 1887. Its flag bears crossed swords.
The 14 states, provinces and regions of Ethiopia with their own flags.
Tigray
Afar
Amhara
Oromia
Somali
Benishangul-Gumuz
Gambela
Harari
Sidama
South West Ethiopia
South Ethiopia
Central Ethiopia
Addis Ababa
Dire DawaEthiopia shares a land border with 6 countries: Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
2 other national flags use the same main colours as Ethiopia's.
Play Globalio and learn Ethiopia's flag
Ghana
Cameroon
Lithuania
Djibouti
Eritrea
Kenya
Somalia
South Sudan
Sudan
Mauritius