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Flagglobe
Natural Earth 1:50m · 50 states
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US State Flags Quiz

Fifty state flags on a flat map of the United States, from the distinctive designs to the seals on blue. Click a state or drag the flag onto it: three tries per flag, then the map shows the answer. Three state names, three hints and three 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 50 states and their capitals, the flags explained, more maps ↓

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US State Flags Quiz

The flag game for the fifty states: drag each state flag onto its state on a flat map of the USA, three tries each. No labels.

Seals on blue: why so many state flags look alike

For most of the nineteenth century the states had no flags of their own. When they wanted one, usually between the 1890s and the 1920s, many legislatures simply copied the regimental colours their militia had carried: a blue field with the state seal or coat of arms in the middle. About a third of the fifty cards in this deck follow that pattern, from Connecticut, Maine and Vermont in the north-east to Idaho, Montana and Oregon in the west, and they are dealt last because they are the hardest to tell apart.

The pattern has been losing ground. Georgia adopted a new flag in 2003, Mississippi retired its old flag in 2020 and replaced it in 2021 with a white magnolia in a ring of stars, Utah put a gold beehive inside a hexagon on a blue, white and red field in 2024, and Minnesota swapped its seal that same year for a white eight-pointed North Star on a dark blue shape beside a light blue field. The deck shows the current designs, so anyone who learnt the old Utah or Minnesota seal will not find it here.

Stars and rays: the flags everyone recognises

Texas is a single white star on a blue band at the hoist, with white over red beside it. Alaska is the Big Dipper and the North Star in gold on dark blue, drawn by a thirteen-year-old, Benny Benson, for a territorial contest in 1927. Arizona spreads thirteen red and gold rays over a blue lower half, with a copper-coloured star for the metal the state is known for; the rays stand for the original thirteen colonies, and the red and gold are the colours of Spain. New Mexico is a red Zia sun symbol on yellow, again the colours of Spain, and it came first in a 2001 survey of state and provincial flags by the North American Vexillological Association. Colorado is a red C around a gold disc on blue, white and blue stripes. Ohio is the only state flag that is not a rectangle: a swallow-tailed pennant with seventeen white stars, for the seventeenth state.

Heraldry, palms and a bear

Maryland's flag is the only one taken straight from English heraldry: the black and gold of the Calvert family, the Lords Baltimore, quartered with the red and white cross of the Crosslands. Hawaii keeps the Union Jack in its canton, a legacy of the kingdom's early ties with Britain, over eight stripes of white, red and blue for the eight main islands. South Carolina's white palmetto and crescent on indigo recall the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island that withstood a British bombardment in 1776. California's Bear Flag, with its grizzly on a patch of grass, red star and red stripe, descends from the banner raised by the 1846 revolt. Rhode Island is a gold anchor and the word Hope on white, ringed by thirteen gold stars. Tennessee has three white stars in a blue disc on red, one for each of the state's three grand divisions, with a narrow blue bar at the fly. Washington is the only green flag, and the only one with a real person on it: a portrait of George Washington in a seal.

Pairs that get mixed up, and what settles them

Texas and North Carolina share a layout: a blue band at the hoist with a white star and two horizontal bars. Texas has white over red and nothing else; North Carolina has red over white, the letters N and C beside the star, and two gold scrolls carrying the dates May 20th 1775 and April 12th 1776. Alabama and Florida are both a red saltire on white, but Florida has the state seal at the crossing. Alaska and Indiana are both gold stars on blue: Indiana has a torch, nineteen stars and its name; Alaska has eight stars and no words.

Among the seals on blue, look for a name first. Kansas, Montana, Oregon, Wisconsin, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and Kentucky spell theirs out; Nebraska, New Hampshire and Virginia print it inside the seal. Four say nothing: Connecticut is a white shield with three grapevines; Michigan has an elk and a moose holding the shield; New York has two robed women, Liberty and Justice, with an eagle on a globe above; Pennsylvania has two black horses. Oregon is the only state flag with a different reverse, a beaver, but the deck shows the front. Delaware and New Jersey are buff rather than blue, and West Virginia is white with a blue border.

All 50 states and their capitals

50 states are on this map, listed in alphabetical order with their capitals — the same facts the Hint button draws on. District of Columbia is drawn too but takes no flag.

  1. AlabamaMontgomery
  2. AlaskaJuneau
  3. ArizonaPhoenix
  4. ArkansasLittle Rock
  5. CaliforniaSacramento
  6. ColoradoDenver
  7. ConnecticutHartford
  8. DelawareDover
  9. District of Columbia
  10. FloridaTallahassee
  11. GeorgiaAtlanta
  12. HawaiiHonolulu
  13. IdahoBoise
  14. IllinoisSpringfield
  15. IndianaIndianapolis
  16. IowaDes Moines
  17. KansasTopeka
  18. KentuckyFrankfort
  19. LouisianaBaton Rouge
  20. MaineAugusta
  21. MarylandAnnapolis
  22. MassachusettsBoston
  23. MichiganLansing
  24. MinnesotaSaint Paul
  25. MississippiJackson
  26. MissouriJefferson City
  27. MontanaHelena
  28. NebraskaLincoln
  29. NevadaCarson City
  30. New HampshireConcord
  31. New JerseyTrenton
  32. New MexicoSanta Fe
  33. New YorkAlbany
  34. North CarolinaRaleigh
  35. North DakotaBismarck
  36. OhioColumbus
  37. OklahomaOklahoma City
  38. OregonSalem
  39. PennsylvaniaHarrisburg
  40. Rhode IslandProvidence
  41. South CarolinaColumbia
  42. South DakotaPierre
  43. TennesseeNashville
  44. TexasAustin
  45. UtahSalt Lake City
  46. VermontMontpelier
  47. VirginiaRichmond
  48. WashingtonOlympia
  49. West VirginiaCharleston
  50. WisconsinMadison
  51. WyomingCheyenne

Questions about these flags

Which US state flag is not rectangular?

Ohio's. It is a swallow-tailed pennant, adopted in 1902, with a blue triangle at the hoist holding seventeen white stars for the seventeenth state, and a white disc with a red centre that reads as the letter O and as a buckeye. Red and white stripes run out to the two points.

Why does the District of Columbia take no flag on this map?

The deck is the fifty states, and the District is a federal district, not a state, so it is drawn on the map but stays empty. It does have a flag of its own: three red stars above two red bars on white, taken from the coat of arms of George Washington's family.

Which state flags are the newest?

Minnesota and Utah both raised new flags in 2024, Utah with a beehive in a hexagon and Minnesota with an eight-pointed star. Mississippi's magnolia flag dates from 2021, after the old flag with the Confederate battle emblem was retired in 2020, and Georgia's current design is from 2003. The deck uses all four current versions.

More maps

Capitals on the same map: US state capitals. Other maps: Australian states, Ukrainian oblasts, UK counties, French regions, Spanish regions, Italian regions, Japanese prefectures, Brazilian states, 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.