Flag of Nauru

Meaning and history of the flag of Nauru

Nauru's flag is dark blue, split horizontally by a narrow golden-yellow stripe that crosses the center of the field. Below this line, in the lower-left portion, sits a white twelve-pointed star. It was adopted on January 31, 1968, the day the country gained independence from the trusteeship administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Blue represents the Pacific Ocean and sky surrounding this tiny island nation. The yellow line symbolizes the equator, since Nauru lies just one degree south of it. The twelve-pointed star represents the island's twelve original tribes, and its white color symbolizes phosphate, the mineral resource that was the country's chief economic asset for much of the 20th century.

The star's position below the equatorial line reflects, with geographic precision, Nauru's actual location in the Southern Hemisphere. At barely 21 square kilometers, Nauru is the smallest republic in the world, and its flag is as distinctive as its geography. The design is sober and elegant, setting it apart from other Pacific flags through its use of a horizontal stripe as a dividing element and the specific number of points on its star.

You can view the flag of Nauru in high resolution above and download it in several sizes for personal, educational or reference use. To explore more, visit the full Nauru profile, its map, or the current local time in Yaren.