Flag of New Caledonia
Locally Nouvelle-Calédonie
What the flag looks like
New Caledonia flies two flags side by side, the French tricolor and the Kanak flag shown here: horizontal bands of blue, red and green with a large black-edged yellow disc towards the hoist, holding a black flèche faîtière (a carved rooftop spire).
What it means
Blue stands for the sky and the ocean, red for the blood shed in the Kanak struggle, and green for the land and the ancestors; the yellow disc is the sun and the flèche faîtière tops a traditional Kanak chief's house.
How to remember it
New Caledonia's
Kanak flag is a blue-red-green stack with a yellow sun pushed towards the flagpole, and a black carved spire standing inside the sun.
Fun facts
- There is no single flag: since 2010 the Kanak flag has flown beside the French tricolor on public buildings, and a shared flag for everyone has been debated but never agreed.
- Three referendums on independence, in 2018, 2020 and 2021, all returned majorities for staying part of France.
New Caledonia at a glance
- Status
- Special collectivity of France
- Sovereign state
- France
- Official flags
- French tricolor and Kanak flag, flown together
- Capital
- Nouméa
- Region
- French special collectivity
- Population
- 271,407
- Area
- 18,575 km²
- Languages
- French
- Currency
- CFP franc (₣)
- Flag adopted
- 1984