Flag of Bermuda
North America
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Hamilton
- Flag adopted
- 1910
- Population
- 64,055
- Area
- 54 km²
- Languages
- English
- Currency
- Bermudian dollar ($) — BMD
- Demonym
- Bermudian
- Government
- Overseas Territory of the UK with limited self-government
- Subregion
- North America
- Driving side
- Left
- Timezones
- UTC-04:00
Religions
- Protestant 55.3%
- None 17.8%
- Roman Catholic 14.5%
- Unspecified 6.2%
- Other 3.9%
- Jehovah's Witness 1.3%
- Muslim 1%
Bermuda is a dependent territory of United Kingdom.
About This Flag
The civil flag of Bermuda is a British Red Ensign — a red field with the Union Jack in the upper-hoist canton — defaced with the Bermudian coat of arms on the fly. The arms show a red lion rampant holding a shield that depicts the wreck of the Sea Venture, the English ship whose 1609 grounding on Bermuda's reefs led to the first English settlement of the islands.
Bermuda is the only British Overseas Territory whose civil ensign uses a red rather than blue field — a choice made when the current design was adopted on October 4, 1910.
What the colors & design mean
The Union Jack reflects Bermuda's status as a British Overseas Territory. The red lion — a symbol of England — holds a shield commemorating the Sea Venture, the founding event of Bermudian settlement. The red field distinguishes Bermuda's flag from the blue ensigns used by most other British territories.
Pattern: Canton Design, Complex Design
Fun Facts
- The shield on the coat of arms shows the Sea Venture, wrecked on Bermuda's reefs in July 1609 while carrying settlers to the Jamestown colony; survivors built new ships from the wreckage and eventually reached Virginia.
- The shipwreck of the Sea Venture is widely believed to have inspired William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, written around 1610–1611.
- Bermuda's use of the red ensign is shared with only a handful of British merchant navy traditions and is a rare deviation from the blue-ensign default for overseas territories.
- The full coat of arms was granted in 1910, the same year the current flag design was adopted.
Similar looking flags
These flags share similar colors and patterns:
Other United Kingdom Territories
More North America Flags
🇦🇬 Antigua and Barbuda · 🇧🇸 Bahamas · 🇧🇧 Barbados · 🇧🇿 Belize · 🇨🇦 Canada · 🇨🇷 Costa Rica · 🇨🇺 Cuba · 🇩🇲 Dominica
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