Europe

Flag of Hungary

Hungary is a landlocked Central European country with a language unrelated to its Slavic and Germanic neighbours, belonging to the Finno-Ugric language family. Budapest, formed by the union of Buda and Pest in 1873, is often called the 'Paris of the East' for its grand boulevards, thermal baths, and ornate parliament building on the Danube. Hungary was a major power within the Austro-Hungarian Empire and joined the European Union in 2004.

CapitalBudapest
RegionEurope
Current flag since1957
Main coloursRed, White, Green
Populationabout 9.6 million
Areaabout 93,000 km²
GeographyLandlocked
Flags in history7

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Hungary means

The colours come from the historic Hungarian coat of arms, with its red and white bars and a green triple mound. They are popularly read as strength (red), faithfulness (white) and hope (green). The tricolour took its present form during the revolution of 1848. During the 1956 uprising, protesters cut the communist emblem out of the centre, and the flag with a hole became the symbol of the revolt.

How to recognise it

Horizontal red-white-green (top to bottom). Italy is vertical green-white-red.

Did you know?

Hungary invented the Rubik's Cube, the ballpoint pen, and the hologram.

Easily confused with

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

Italy

Bulgaria

Iran

Flag history of Hungary

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

1957–present

Current tricolor

After the 1956 revolution was crushed, the Kádár government removed all heraldry, returning to the plain red-white-green tricolor. This emblem-free flag has remained Hungary's flag ever since.

1956–1957

1956 Revolution 'flag with the hole'

Revolutionaries cut the hated communist coat of arms out of the flag's center, leaving an iconic ragged hole. This "hole flag" became the enduring emblem of the 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.

1949–1956

Communist (Rákosi arms)

The Stalinist Rákosi regime placed a Soviet-style emblem of wheat, hammer and red star at the flag's center — a foreign-looking symbol that Hungarians widely resented.

1946–1949

Republican (Kossuth arms)

The post-war Second Hungarian Republic restored the small Kossuth coat of arms to the tricolor. The same flag returned briefly during the 1956 revolution.

1919–1946

Pre-communist tricolor

The plain red-white-green tricolor flew over the interwar Kingdom of Hungary — a kingdom with no king, ruled by Regent Horthy.

1896–1915

Kingdom of Hungary (Austria-Hungary)

Within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary flew the red-white-green tricolor charged with the crowned middle coat of arms, often flanked by angels. It was the flag of the Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy, at the height of Budapest's belle-époque grandeur, until the empire collapsed in 1918.

1000–1301

Árpád stripes (medieval kingdom)

The red-and-white horizontal stripes (the "Árpád stripes") were the banner of the House of Árpád, Hungary's founding dynasty, from around the 11th century. One of the oldest heraldic devices in Europe, they still occupy the left half of Hungary's coat of arms and remain a powerful — and politically contested — national symbol.

Related historical states

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

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.

1919

Hungarian Soviet Republic

Béla Kun's plain red communist state, the second Soviet republic in the world after Russia, which lasted just 133 days before Romanian troops toppled it.

1949–1989

Hungarian People's Republic

The communist 'Rákosi coat of arms' on the tricolor was so hated that 1956 revolutionaries cut it out, leaving a hole-in-the-flag that became the uprising's emblem.