Random Flag Generator

Type a number from 1 to 20, press Generate Flag, and you get that many flags picked at random from a set of 261 national and territorial flags. Each card shows the flag as an SVG image, the name of the country or territory, and its two-letter code (the same ISO 3166 code used in web domains and emoji flags). Use it to run a flag quiz, pick a country for a project or game, or just see a flag you don't recognize and go read about it.

What you can set

There is one control: how many flags to draw. The minimum is 1 and the maximum is 20 per click. The tool shuffles the whole list and takes the first N, so a single batch never contains the same flag twice. Press the button again for a fresh batch; there is no seed or history, so the same flag can show up across separate clicks.

There is no filter by continent. If you want flags from one region, the Random European Country Generator, Random Asian Country Generator and Random Africa Country Generator each pick from a single continent, and the plain Random Country Generator picks a country name instead of a flag.

What is in the flag set

The 261 flags are the standard set of regional-indicator flags, which is broader than a list of sovereign states. It includes:

• All UN member states, plus observers and partially recognized states such as Vatican City, Palestinian Territories, Kosovo and Taiwan.
• Dependent territories and overseas regions with their own flags: Puerto Rico, Guam, Greenland, Bermuda, the Falkland Islands, French Polynesia, Réunion, Hong Kong and Macao, among many others.
• Three of the UK home nations as separate flags: England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland has no official flag of its own).
• A handful of non-country flags: the European Union, the United Nations, and Antarctica.

Because territories are included, expect flags like Ascension Island, Tokelau or the Caribbean Netherlands to appear now and then. That makes the tool harder as a quiz than a 193-country list would be, which is usually what people want from a flag randomizer. If you only want sovereign countries, skip any card whose code you don't recognize as a country domain.

Ways to use it

• Flag quiz for a class or pub night. Generate 10 flags, cover the names, and have people guess. The two-letter code is a good hint level between "no clue" and "tell me".
• Geography study. Draw one flag at a time and pair it with the Random Capital City Generator to drill both flags and capitals in the same session.
• Picking a country for a project. Students who need "a country" for a report, a model UN seat or a cooking assignment can let the generator decide.
• Design reference. The flags are clean SVGs, so they are handy for checking color combinations and layouts (tricolors, cantons, crosses, emblems) without searching each one.
• Game setup. Assign nations to players in a strategy board game or an online tournament by drawing one flag per person.

Reading a flag: the common layouts

Once you have drawn a few dozen flags you will notice most of them fall into a small number of patterns, which makes guessing easier:

• Vertical tricolors such as France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium and Mexico. Mexico and Italy share green, white and red; Mexico is the one with the eagle in the center.
• Horizontal tricolors like Germany, Russia, the Netherlands, Hungary and Bulgaria. The Netherlands and Luxembourg differ only in the shade of blue.
• Nordic crosses: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, plus the Faroe Islands and Åland Islands, which are both in this set.
• Pan-African colors (green, yellow, red) on Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Cameroon, and pan-Arab colors (red, white, black, green) on Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE, Sudan and Palestine.
• Blue ensigns with the Union Jack in the canton: Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Tuvalu and most British overseas territories.
• Unusual shapes: Nepal is the only non-rectangular flag; Switzerland and Vatican City are square.

The country name on each card lets you check your guess immediately, and the code makes it easy to look the country up anywhere else. For more place-based randomizers, see all country, city & place generators.