Netherlands
What the source says
Referenced, awaiting primary-source reviewA royal decree of 19 February 1937 established the colours as red, white and blue. According to heraldic traditions, red symbolizes bravery, strength, valor; white peace and honesty; blue vigilance, truth, loyalty. The design originates as a variant of the late 16th century orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag, evolving into the red-white-blue Statenvlag [and] is said to have influenced the designs of both the seminal Russian flag and the French flag.
Referenced, not verified: a secondary work states this, and the document that constitutes the flag has not been read for this entry. What the marks mean.
Colors and meaning
Symbolism and history(r1)
A plain red-white-blue horizontal tricolor, fixed by royal decree in 1937, that evolved from the late-16th-century orange-white-blue Prince's Flag into the red-white-blue Statenvlag and is said to have influenced the Russian and French flags.
Most similar flags
The 6 closest of the 194 other national flags, ranked by a similarity index computed from the flag images themselves. The number is that index, 0–100 — not a claim that the two flags are “X% identical”.
- Paraguay98
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
- Croatia94
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
- Russia87
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
- Czech Republic86
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
- Cuba85
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
- United States of America85
the same horizontal band layout; near-identical colour proportions.
Computed at build time: each flag is rasterised to 64x48, and the score is 0.55 × colour overlap + 0.45 × structure. A different weighting would rank these differently. How the index works.
References — not verification
(r1) Referenced to Flag of the Netherlands (Wikipedia (English)) on 2026-07-17. States the adoption year, which colors the flag has, what the colors mean and the symbolism and history on this page. The passage it states them in is quoted at the top of this entry.
Further reading: Flag of the Netherlands on Wikipedia