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Natural Earth 1:50m · 27 states
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Brazilian State Flags Quiz

The flags of Brazil's twenty-six states and the Federal District on a flat map — from São Paulo's black and white stripes to Pernambuco's rainbow. Click a state or drag the flag onto it: three tries per flag, then the map shows the answer. Two names, two hints and two skips are free for the round.

Drag the flag onto a state, or click the state. Name shows the state the flag belongs to, Hint opens all three facts about it; after three misses, or Skip, the map places it for you. Scroll or pinch to zoom in.

All 27 states and their capitals, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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Brazilian State Flags Quiz

Drag the flags of Brazil's 26 states and the Federal District onto a flat map of Brazil, three tries each. No labels.

A republic's flags: stars, stripes and the national lozenge

Most of Brazil's state flags were born with the republic of 1889; the rest came with new states, Mato Grosso do Sul in the 1970s, Rondônia in 1981, and Tocantins, Amapá and Roraima after the constitution of 1988. Two models served. Ceará copied the national flag outright, green field and yellow lozenge, with the state arms in a white disc where the blue globe would be, and Mato Grosso reshuffled the same four colours into a blue field, white lozenge, green disc and gold star. The other was the flag of the United States, stars in a canton over stripes, used by seven states.

Seven flags with a canton, and what sets each apart

São Paulo is the easy one: thirteen black and white stripes and a red canton with a blue map of Brazil in a white disc between four yellow stars, Júlio Ribeiro's 1888 proposal for a national flag. Piauí also has thirteen stripes, green and yellow, with one white star and the date 13 de Março de 1823, the Battle of Jenipapo. Goiás has eight green and yellow stripes and the five stars of the Southern Cross; Sergipe four broad stripes and five stars, the largest in the middle. Maranhão has nine stripes of red, white and black and a single star. Bahia and Amazonas are both white and red with a blue canton: Bahia's holds a white triangle over four even stripes, Amazonas's a crowd of small stars around a larger one for Manaus, above one broad red band.

Diagonals of the north and the centre-west

Newer states favour a diagonal. Pará is red with a white band falling from the upper hoist and a blue star in the middle, Pará's own star from the national flag. Mato Grosso do Sul, Tocantins and Roraima share the cut: Mato Grosso do Sul is green and blue with a small yellow star in the lower fly corner; Tocantins is blue and yellow with a many-pointed sun on the white band; Roraima is pale blue and green with a large yellow star and a thin red line near the bottom for the Equator. Acre is two triangles, yellow over green, with a red star in the top corner, the flag of the 1899 revolt that took the territory from Bolivia to Brazil. Rondônia raises a green triangle against blue and yellow with a white star on the join. Rio Grande do Sul runs green, red and yellow bands corner to corner behind the arms of the Riograndense Republic of the Farroupilha war, and Paraná lays a white band across green with the Southern Cross in a blue disc between araucaria and yerba mate.

Mottoes, a rainbow and a set of arms

Three flags rely on words. Minas Gerais is a red triangle on white ringed by Libertas quae sera tamen, liberty though late, the line from Virgil the Inconfidência Mineira of 1789 took as its motto. Paraíba is black and red with the single word NEGO, I refuse, from 1930, when its governor João Pessoa refused to back the official candidate for president and was assassinated; black is mourning, red the revolt. Espírito Santo carries Trabalha e Confia, work and trust, on the only pink flag here. Pernambuco keeps the flag of its revolt of 1817, a rainbow, sun and star on blue over a red cross on white. The rest are arms on a field: Rio de Janeiro's eagle above a mountain on white and blue quarters, Rio Grande do Norte's sailing jangada between two palms, Santa Catarina's green lozenge on red and white, Amapá's black-edged diamond for the fortress of Macapá, and the Federal District's four yellow arrows on a green panel.

Pairs that get mixed up

Goiás, Sergipe and Piauí: count the stripes, eight, four and thirteen. Bahia or Amazonas: look for the triangle. Among the diagonals the star is the tell: centre for Roraima and Pará, corner for Mato Grosso do Sul, seam for Rondônia, sun for Tocantins. Acre's star is red, Rondônia's white; Ceará's lozenge is yellow on green, Mato Grosso's white on blue.

All 27 states and their capitals

27 states are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals — the same facts the Hint button draws on. All of them are in the deck.

  1. AcreRio Branco
  2. AlagoasMaceió
  3. AmapáMacapá
  4. AmazonasManaus
  5. BahiaSalvador
  6. CearáFortaleza
  7. Espírito SantoVitória
  8. Federal DistrictBrasília
  9. GoiásGoiânia
  10. MaranhãoSão Luís
  11. Mato GrossoCuiabá
  12. Mato Grosso do SulCampo Grande
  13. Minas GeraisBelo Horizonte
  14. ParáBelém
  15. ParaíbaJoão Pessoa
  16. ParanáCuritiba
  17. PernambucoRecife
  18. PiauíTeresina
  19. Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
  20. Rio Grande do NorteNatal
  21. Rio Grande do SulPorto Alegre
  22. RondôniaPorto Velho
  23. RoraimaBoa Vista
  24. Santa CatarinaFlorianópolis
  25. São PauloSão Paulo
  26. SergipeAracaju
  27. TocantinsPalmas

Questions about these flags

Which Brazilian state flags have words on them?

Minas Gerais carries the Latin motto Libertas quae sera tamen around its red triangle, Paraíba the single word NEGO, Espírito Santo the motto Trabalha e Confia, and Piauí the date 13 de Março de 1823 in its canton. Paraná prints its own name across the blue disc, and the scrolls in the arms of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina spell out the state as well.

Why does the flag of Paraíba say NEGO?

Nego means I refuse. In 1930 the governor of Paraíba, João Pessoa, refused to support the official candidate in the presidential election; he was assassinated in July that year, and his death helped set off the revolution that brought Getúlio Vargas to power in October. The flag was adopted that year, black for mourning and red for the revolt, and the state capital was renamed after him.

Which state flags borrow from the national flag?

Ceará is the closest copy: the same green field and yellow lozenge, with the state arms in a white disc instead of the blue globe. Mato Grosso uses the same four colours in a different order, a white lozenge on blue with a gold star in a green disc. Goiás and Paraná both show the Southern Cross, and Pará's blue star is the state's own star from the national sky.

More maps

Capitals on the same map: Brazilian state capitals. Other maps: US states, Australian states, Ukrainian oblasts, UK counties, French regions, Spanish regions, Italian regions, Japanese prefectures, Polish voivodeships, German states, Dutch provinces, Swedish counties, Canadian provinces, Mexican states, Argentine provinces, Swiss cantons. All 235 flags of the world with their capitals: Flags of the world · all modes.