Europe

Flag of Croatia

Croatia stretches along the eastern Adriatic Sea and is known for its dramatic coastline, more than a thousand islands, and well-preserved medieval cities. Dubrovnik, encircled by massive limestone walls, is one of Europe's most iconic historic cities and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. Croatia joined the European Union in 2013 and is famous worldwide for the crystalline waterfalls of Plitvice Lakes National Park.

CapitalZagreb
RegionEurope
Current flag since1990
Main coloursRed, White, Blue
Populationabout 3.9 million
Areaabout 57,000 km²
Flags in history6

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Croatia means

Red, white and blue are the Pan-Slavic colours, taken up during the Croatian national revival of the 1840s. The shield shows the red-and-white checkerboard, the šahovnica, a Croatian symbol since at least the late 15th century. Above it sits a crown of five small shields for historic regions: the oldest known Croatian arms, the Republic of Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia. The current flag was adopted in December 1990.

How to recognise it

Horizontal red-white-blue with a distinctive red-and-white checkerboard shield in the centre.

Did you know?

Croatia has 1,244 islands, islets and reefs along its Adriatic coast, but only about 50 of them are inhabited.

Easily confused with

Croatia's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

Czech Republic

Slovakia

Flag history of Croatia

Every flag that has flown over Croatia, from today back through time.

1990–present

Flag of Croatia

Adopted in December 1990 as Yugoslavia dissolved, it centers the red-and-white checkerboard (šahovnica) beneath a crown of five historical regional shields, beginning with the oldest known Croatian coat of arms.

1947–1990

SR Croatia

The Socialist Republic placed a gold-bordered red star at the center of the tricolor, deliberately omitting the traditional checkerboard during the Yugoslav period.

1941–1945

Independent State of Croatia (NDH)

The WWII fascist puppet state kept the tricolor and checkerboard but added the Ustaše "U" emblem. It remains a taboo symbol because of the regime's genocidal crimes.

1939–1941

Banovina of Croatia

On the eve of WWII, Croatia won a measure of autonomy within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as the Banovina (Banate) of Croatia in 1939, flying the plain red-white-blue tricolor with the checkerboard. This brief self-government was swept away in 1941 when the Axis invaded and dismembered Yugoslavia.

1921

Labin Republic (Albona)

The Labin Republic was a short-lived 1921 workers' state in Istria, when coal miners seized the mines and declared self-rule against rising Italian Fascism. Its red flag bore a miner's hammer and pick. Italian troops crushed it within five weeks — one of Europe's earliest organized anti-fascist uprisings.

1868–1918

Kingdom of Croatia (Austria-Hungary)

Within Austria-Hungary, Croatia-Slavonia was an autonomous kingdom flying a red-white-blue tricolor with the historic checkerboard shield. The pan-Slavic red-white-blue arrangement, chosen in the 19th-century national revival, is the direct ancestor of the modern Croatian flag.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Croatia.

1867–1918

Austria-Hungary

The civil ensign split 50/50, joining the Austrian red-white-red with Hungary's colors and both shields — the Dual Monarchy never agreed on a single flag for the whole empire.

1918–1941

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The blue-white-red Pan-Slavic tricolor symbolized the union of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, flown by the Kingdom until the Axis invasion of 1941.

1945–1992

Socialist Yugoslavia

Tito's Partisans added a red, gold-bordered star to the tricolor; it marked the country's communist character until the federation's violent breakup in the 1990s.

1919–1920

Italian Regency of Carnaro

Poet Gabriele D'Annunzio's quasi-anarchic statelet at Fiume, whose flag bore the constellation of Ursa Major and the motto 'Quis contra nos?' — 'Who is against us?'.

1920–1924

Free State of Fiume

A short-lived independent city-state — modern Rijeka, Croatia — created by the Treaty of Rapallo and annexed by Italy in 1924. Its flag is a burgundy-yellow-blue tricolor.

1358–1808

Republic of Ragusa

The Adriatic merchant republic of Dubrovnik flew a white flag bearing St Blaise, its patron, holding a model of the walled city. Its motto was 'Libertas'.

1815–1918

Kingdom of Dalmatia

A blue-and-yellow flag for the Habsburg crown land along the Adriatic coast, governed from Zadar, whose territory is now part of Croatia.

1941–1945

Independent State of Croatia

The Axis puppet state run by the fascist Ustaše, responsible for atrocities against Serbs, Jews, and Roma; its flag added the Ustaše's 'U' badge to the Croatian checkerboard.