Flag of Madagascar
Officially Republic of Madagascar
Locally Madagasikara
What the flag looks like
A vertical white band at the hoist, with two horizontal bands, red over green, filling the fly.
What it means
Red stands for sovereignty, green for hope and the coastal peoples, and white for purity.
How to remember it
Madagascar
has a white band at the flagpole beside red over green; Benin's
matching layout has a green band and yellow over red.
Fun facts
- The flag was adopted in 1958, two years before independence from France, and has not changed since.
- Madagascar is the world's fourth-largest island, and lemurs live wild nowhere else.
Madagascar at a glance
- Capital
- Antananarivo
- Region
- Eastern Africa
- Population
- 32 million
- Area
- 587,041 km²
- Languages
- French, Malagasy
- Currency
- Malagasy ariary (Ar)
- Flag adopted
- 1958
Flags often confused with Madagascar
- Benin: Benin and Madagascar both have a vertical hoist band and two horizontal bands. Benin is green at the hoist with yellow over red; Madagascar is white at the hoist with red over green.
- Guinea-Bissau: Guinea-Bissau and Madagascar both have a vertical band at the hoist and two horizontal bands. Guinea-Bissau's hoist band is red with a black star, then yellow over green; Madagascar's is white, then red over green.