Country flag
Sweden Flag
Sweden’s national flag is a blue field cut by a yellow Nordic cross. Its exact public design is set by the Flag Act, which recognises rectangular and sw...
Where is Sweden?
The highlighted area marks the country on the world map.
About Sweden and its flag
Sweden’s national flag is a blue field cut by a yellow Nordic cross. Its exact public design is set by the Flag Act, which recognises rectangular and swallow-tailed forms, while colour shades are prescribed separately. The National Archives traces the flag tradition to the mid-sixteenth century, so the current legal rules should not be read as the flag’s original adoption.
Flag design and meaning
The Flag Act requires a blue ground and a yellow cross set at right angles to the flag edges. In rectangular form, height to length is 10:16; the shorter fields measure 4:5, the longer fields 4:9, and the cross arms are half a field’s height. The legal colour names are light medium blue and golden yellow, with NCS specifications set by regulation.
- Blue field and yellow cross: Riksarkivet attributes the flag’s colours to Sweden’s heraldic arms: the blue field with three golden crowns and the gold cross that quarters the large arms. This is a heraldic origin, not a universal message assigned to each colour.
History and adoption
The National Archives dates Sweden’s blue-and-yellow cross flag to the middle of the sixteenth century and says its model was probably taken from Denmark’s older cross flag. The Flag Act was issued in 1982 and regulates the present forms and proportions; the 2008 regulation restated the official colour specifications. These are modern legal definitions rather than a single original adoption event.
How to recognise this flag
- Look for a plain yellow cross that reaches all four edges; Sweden’s civil flag has no badge or stars.
- Notice that the cross is offset toward the hoist, leaving a visibly longer blue section at the fly.
Sweden flag quiz context
On Name The Flag, the Sweden flag is currently grouped as easy difficulty for quiz progression.
Players may also want to compare it with Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland, which can appear as plausible flag distractors.
Explore more country flags
Compare Sweden with other flags from the quiz.
