Malaysia is a Southeast Asian country consisting of two distinct regions separated by the South China Sea — Peninsular Malaysia (bordering Thailand) and Malaysian Borneo. It is a multicultural melting pot of Malay, Chinese, Indian, and indigenous cultures, reflected in its extraordinarily diverse food, festivals, and languages. The Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004 and remain iconic symbols of Malaysia's rapid development.
Population and area are rounded.
The fourteen stripes, the Jalur Gemilang or “Stripes of Glory”, stand for the equal status of the thirteen states and the federal government, as do the fourteen points of the star. The crescent represents Islam, yellow the Malay rulers, and the blue canton the unity of the people. The flag first had eleven stripes in 1950; three were added in 1963 when Sabah, Sarawak and Singapore joined.
Fourteen alternating red-white stripes with a blue canton containing a crescent and 14-pointed star.
Malaysia is the world's third-largest exporter of rubber and has the world's oldest rainforest.
Malaysia's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:
Every flag that has flown over Malaysia, from today back through time.
When Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore joined in 1963, the stripes and star points increased from 11 to 14. The design was unchanged when Singapore left in 1965 — the 14th element was simply reinterpreted as the federal territories.
Designed by Mohamad Hamzah and approved in 1950, it had 11 red-and-white stripes and an 11-pointed star for the 11 members of the Federation of Malaya.
The old Pahang Sultanate of the Malay Peninsula, a vassal of Malacca and Johor, ancestor of the modern Malaysian state of Pahang.
Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Malaysia.
Sarawak was privately ruled by the Brooke family, English 'White Rajahs', for over a century. The split black-and-red cross is from the Brooke coat of arms.
The 15th-century sultanate was a great Malay trading power; no authenticated period banner survives, so its red-and-white colors live on in the modern Malacca state flag.
Successor to the Malacca sultanate, Johor was a major Malay power on the peninsula's tip; its colors survive in the modern Malaysian state of Johor.
Modern Sabah was ruled for over sixty years by the British North Borneo Chartered Company, one of the last territories administered by a private trading company.
The 16 states, provinces and regions of Malaysia with their own flags.
Johor
Kedah
Kelantan Melaka
Negeri Sembilan
Pahang
Penang
Perak
Perlis
Selangor
Terengganu
Sabah
Sarawak
Kuala Lumpur
Labuan
PutrajayaMalaysia shares a land border with 3 countries: Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand.
4 other national flags use the same main colours as Malaysia's.
Play Globalio and learn Malaysia's flag
Liberia
United States
Brunei
Indonesia
Thailand
Cape Verde
Kiribati
Philippines
Tuvalu