Flag of Honduras

What the flag of Honduras looks like

The flag of Honduras has three horizontal bands of equal height: blue at the top, white in the center and blue at the bottom. On the white band are five blue five-pointed stars. Four of them sit at the corners of an imaginary square and the fifth sits in the middle, forming an X or a quincunx. The flag is twice as wide as it is tall, a proportion of 1:2.

The shade of blue is a point of discussion. A decree of 1949 defined the blue as turquoise, but for decades the flag continued to be produced in navy blue. Turquoise was officially adopted in 2022 under President Xiomara Castro, and in January 2026 the flag returned officially to navy blue.

The design is very close to the flag of El Salvador, which also has a blue-white-blue arrangement but with a coat of arms in the middle instead of stars. A look at the Honduras flag emoji shows the five stars clearly, even at small size.

Honduras flag meaning and symbolism

The two outer blue bands are said to represent the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and also the blue sky and brotherhood. The white band in the middle stands for the land between the ocean and the sea, the peace and prosperity of its people, and purity of thoughts.

The five stars stand for the five states of the former Federal Republic of Central America: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. The stars also express the hope that the five nations may form a union again, a goal known as Central American unity.

History of the Honduras flag

Honduras was part of the Spanish Empire until 1821, when Central America declared independence. It briefly belonged to the Mexican Empire, then in 1823 joined the Federal Republic of Central America, also called the United Provinces of Central America. That federation flew a flag of blue, white and blue bands with a coat of arms in the center showing a triangle, five volcanoes and a rising sun.

When the federation dissolved in 1838, Honduras kept using a plain blue-white-blue flag, the federation flag without the emblem. On 16 February 1866, under Legislative Decree No. 7 and President José María Medina, five blue stars were added to represent the five original provinces of the federation, and that version is the basis of the current flag. Other arrangements of the stars were used for a time, but they had disappeared by the 1930s.

A decree of 1949 confirmed the position of the stars and defined the blue as turquoise. People often ask whether Honduras has a new flag. It does not: the blue-white-blue design with five stars has been used since the 19th century, and only the shade of blue has been a matter of change.