Flag of Qatar
Asia
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Doha
- Flag adopted
- 1971
- Population
- 3,173,024
- Area
- 11,586 kmΒ²
- Languages
- Arabic
- Currency
- Qatari riyal (Ψ±.Ω) β QAR
- Demonym
- Qatari
- Government
- absolute monarchy
- Subregion
- Western Asia
- Driving side
- Right
- Timezones
- UTC+03:00
- Independence
- 1971
Religions
- Muslim 65.2%
- Hindu 15.9%
- Christian 13.7%
- Buddhist 3.8%
- Other 1%
- Unspecified 1%
- folk religion 0.1%
- Jewish 0.1%
About This Flag
The flag of Qatar features a broad maroon field separated from a white band on the hoist side by a serrated line with nine white points. The maroon color, known as 'Qatar maroon,' is distinctive and resulted historically from the effect of sun exposure on the originally red dyes used in the region.
The white represents peace, and the nine serrated points indicate that Qatar was the ninth member of the 'reconciled emirates' of the Persian Gulf after the Qatari-British treaty of 1916. Qatar's flag is the only national flag whose width is more than twice its height, giving it an unusually elongated shape with an official ratio of 11:28.
What the colors & design mean
Maroon is the national color of Qatar, said to have originated from the sun-fading of traditional red dyes. White symbolizes peace and the historical truce agreements with Britain. The nine points of the serrated line represent Qatar as the ninth reconciled emirate of the Gulf.
Pattern: Vertical Stripes
Bordering countries (1)
Fun Facts
- Qatar's flag is the widest national flag in the world by proportion, with an official width-to-height ratio of 11:28 β more than 2.5 times as wide as it is tall.
- The distinctive maroon (rather than red) supposedly originated because the region's red fabric dyes would darken in the intense Gulf sun, and the faded color became a point of national pride.
- Qatar is a peninsula jutting into the Persian Gulf and is the only country starting with the letter Q recognized by the United Nations.
- Despite being smaller than Connecticut, Qatar has one of the highest per-capita GDPs in the world due to its enormous natural gas reserves β it holds the third-largest proven gas reserves globally.
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