Asia

Flag of Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan is a double-landlocked Central Asian country that was the heartland of the ancient Silk Road, the trade network connecting China to the Mediterranean world. Cities like Samarkand and Bukhara were among the medieval world's greatest centres of Islamic scholarship, architecture, and commerce, with breathtaking tilework that rivals anything on Earth. Uzbekistan is also the birthplace of medieval mathematician al-Khwarizmi, from whose name the word 'algorithm' is ultimately derived.

CapitalTashkent
RegionAsia
Current flag since1991
Main coloursBlue, White, Green, Red
Populationabout 35 million
Areaabout 449,000 km²
GeographyLandlocked
Flags in history8

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Uzbekistan means

Blue stands for the sky and water, white for peace and purity, and green for nature; the thin red lines represent the life force. The crescent stands for the newly independent republic, and the twelve stars are said to represent the months of the year. The flag was adopted in November 1991.

How to recognise it

Horizontal blue-white-green with thin red borders and a crescent with twelve stars on the blue stripe.

Did you know?

Uzbekistan is the world's sixth-largest producer of gold.

Easily confused with

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

Kazakhstan

Tajikistan

Flag history of Uzbekistan

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

1991–present

Republic of Uzbekistan

Adopted in 1991, the first ex-Soviet Central Asian republic to introduce a new national flag. It bears blue, white, and green stripes with red fimbriations, a white crescent, and twelve stars.

1952–1991

Uzbek SSR

The final Soviet-era design: a red flag with a central light-blue band edged by thin white stripes, plus the hammer, sickle, and star in the canton.

1785–1920

Emirate of Bukhara

Before the Soviets, the great oasis cities of Uzbekistan were ruled by the Emirate of Bukhara — heir to the empire of Timur (Tamerlane), whose capital Samarkand was one of the jewels of the Islamic world. The emirate flew a green flag and survived as a Russian protectorate until the Red Army stormed Bukhara in 1920, ending a line of Central Asian Muslim states stretching back centuries.

1920–1925

Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

The Soviet client state that replaced the Emirate of Bukhara before being carved into the Central Asian SSRs.

1920–1925

Khorezm People's Soviet Republic

The Soviet successor to the Khanate of Khiva, dissolved into the new Uzbek and Turkmen republics.

1917–1918

Turkestan Autonomy

A short-lived Muslim autonomous government at Kokand, crushed by the Bolsheviks within months — a founding memory of Central Asian nationalism.

1709–1876

Khanate of Kokand

A khanate of the fertile Fergana Valley, the last Central Asian state conquered by the Russian Empire.

1511–1920

Khanate of Khiva

A Central Asian khanate of the Khorezm oasis, a slave-trading power on the Amu Darya until the Red Army took it.

Related historical states

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

1922–1991

Soviet Union

The gold hammer and sickle beneath a red star stood for the worker-peasant alliance. The exact shade and proportions were fixed by Soviet law in 1955.

1511–1920

Khanate of Khiva

A Central Asian khanate on the oasis of Khwarezm, a major Silk Road and slave-trade center, which became a Russian protectorate before the Bolsheviks toppled its khan in 1920.

1709–1876

Khanate of Kokand

A khanate in the fertile Fergana Valley, one of the three great Uzbek states, conquered and annexed by the Russian Empire in 1876 during its advance across Central Asia.

1785–1920

Emirate of Bukhara

The last emir of this ancient Central Asian state, a Russian protectorate, fled when the Red Army stormed Bukhara in 1920, ending centuries of Uzbek dynastic rule.

1920–1925

Bukharan People's Soviet Republic

The Soviet-aligned republic that replaced the Emirate of Bukhara, flying a red flag with Arabic-script and a crescent, before being partitioned into the Uzbek and Turkmen SSRs.