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Last modified: 2012-06-08 by rob raeside
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I have always asked myself what is the most frequent combination of colours; what is the most used colour on flags, and I decided to research frequency and quantity of colours on flags of independent countries.
The results are sorted in different categories:
Firstly, I had to differentiate colours. I have divided them in 10 groups:
There are 192 flags of independent countries in the world. The most frequent are the three-coloured flags.
| no of colours | no of flags | % |
| 1 | 1 | 0.52 |
| 2 | 43 | 22.40 |
| 3 | 76 | 39.58 |
| 4 | 45 | 23.44 |
| 5 | 14 | 7.29 |
| 6 | 7 | 3.65 |
| 7 | 4 | 2.08 |
| 8 | 2 | 1.04 |
And the most frequent combination of colours is White/Red/Blue...
| Combinations | Number | References |
| W/R/B | 30 | |
| W/R | 16 | |
| R/V/Y | 10 | (Pan-African colours) |
| W/R/V | 10 | |
| W/N/R/V | 8 | (Pan-Arab colours) |
| W/R/B/Y | 6 | |
| B/Y | 5 | |
| R/B/Y | 5 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y | 5 | |
| W/G | 4 | Comoros, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia |
| R/Y | 4 | China, Kyrgyz R., Macedonia, Vietnam |
| N/R/V/Y | 4 | Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Rwanda, Vanuatu |
| W/R/B/V | 4 | Azerbaijan, Djibouti, Gambia, Uzbekistan |
| W/N/R/V/Y | 4 | St. Kitts and Nevis, Mozambique, Guyana, Zimbabwe |
| N/R/Y | 3 | |
| W/V/O | 3 | Ireland, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, India (Orange appears only with green) |
| W/N/R/Y | 3 | |
| R/B/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/R/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/R/B/V/Y | 3 | |
| W/N/R/B/Y | 3 | |
| R/G | 2 | |
| B/V/Y | 2 | |
| N/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/N/B | 2 | |
| W/N/R | 2 | |
| W/N/B/Y | 2 | |
| W/B/V/Y | 2 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y/G/M | 2 | |
| B/R | 1 | Haiti |
| N/R | 1 | Albania |
| V/Y | 1 | Mauritania |
| V | 1 | Libya (pre-2011) |
| N/R/V | 1 | |
| N/V/Y | 1 | |
| R/B/O | 1 | |
| W/B/V | 1 | |
| W/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B | 1 | |
| W/N/R/O | 1 | |
| W/N/R/G | 1 | |
| W/N/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/N/Y/M | 1 | |
| N/R/B/Y | 1 | |
| N/B/V/Y | 1 | |
| R/V/Y/O | 1 | |
| W/B/V/M | 1 | |
| W/B/V/O | 1 | |
| N/R/B/Y/M | 1 | |
| N/R/V/O/M | 1 | |
| W/N/R/Y/G | 1 | |
| N/R/B/V/Y | 1 | |
| W/R/B/V/Y/P | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/Y/G | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/O/M | 1 | |
| W/N/R/B/V/Y/M | 1 | |
| W/N/B/V/Y/G/M | 1 | |
| W/N/B/V/V/Y/P | 1 |
The number of flags containing particular colours are:
| Colour | No. | % |
| Red | 148 | 77.08 |
| White | 140 | 72.92 |
| Blue | 102 | 53.13 |
| Yellow/Gold | 89 | 46.30 |
| Green | 87 | 45.31 |
| Black | 59 | 30.73 |
| Orange | 9 | 4.69 |
| Brown | 9 | 4.69 |
| Gray | 6 | 3.13 |
| Purple | 2 | 1.04 |
Sorted by area of colour:
| Colour | Percent |
| Red | 30.30 |
| Blue | 21.15 |
| White | 19.12 |
| Green | 15.33 |
| Yellow/Gold | 8.60 |
| Black | 5.13 |
| Orange | 1.24 |
| Brown | 0.11 |
| Gray | 0.03 |
| Purple | 0.001 |
Definitely, red is the most popular colour. The second colour, as you can see is not the same by area and by frequency (blue & white) ....... And the champions of whiteness are (results in % of flag area):
Black:
Red:
Blue:
Green:
Yellow/Gold:
Orange:
Gray:
Brown:
Purple:
By % of flag area regardless of colour:
There are 30 plain tribands (with equal stripes/bands) out of the countries of the world.
6 of them are "2-coloured tribands":
24 are "3-coloured tribands":
% of colour area of all tribands:
Existing combinations:
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