Flag of Barbados
What the flag looks like
Three equal vertical bands of ultramarine blue, gold and ultramarine blue, with a black trident head, its shaft broken off, in the center of the gold band.
What it means
The blue bands represent the sea and sky and the gold band the sand; the broken trident, taken from the colonial badge of Britannia, symbolises the break from colonial rule.
How to remember it
Barbados
: a black trident with its shaft snapped off, standing on gold between two blue stripes, like Neptune breaking with the past.
Fun facts
- The flag was designed by Grantley Prescod, whose entry won an open national competition before independence in 1966.
- Barbados became a republic on 30 November 2021, replacing the British monarch as head of state with a president.
Barbados at a glance
- Capital
- Bridgetown
- Region
- Caribbean
- Population
- 282,467
- Area
- 430 km²
- Languages
- English
- Currency
- Barbadian dollar ($)
- Flag adopted
- 1966
Flags often confused with Barbados
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Barbados and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines both have vertical blue and gold bands. Barbados is blue-gold-blue with a black trident; Saint Vincent is blue-gold-green with three green diamonds.