How many stars are there on the american flag

The American Flag

Learn about the American flag and how to display it.

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Infographic: How to Display the American Flag

Learn when and how to display the American flag properly.

The U.S. flag stands for our nation and the shared history, pride, principles, and commitment of its people. When we properly display this powerful symbol, we signal our respect for everything it represents.

The flag shouldn’t be flown in inclement weather unless it’s an all-weather flag.

Flags displayed at night should be properly illuminated.

In a time of national mourning, hang the flag at half-mast.

The flag can be flown every day, but it is often flown to show patriotism on these observances:

Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday

Washington’s Birthday (Presidents Day)

National Vietnam War Veterans Day

Armed Forces Day

National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day

When displaying the flag…

From your porch, place the union (blue section) at the peak of the staff.

Against a wall or on a window, place the union (blue section) at the top left corner.

On your vehicle, clamp the staff to the right front fender.

With another flag, place the U.S. flag to your left when crossed.

Keep your flag completely dry and folded properly — into a triangle, with the union (blue section) visible — before storing it in a well-ventilated area. If the flag is damaged or worn out, it should be disposed of with dignity.

The flag should not touch anything below it or rest on the ground.

Source: United States Code, Title 4, Chapter 1–The Flag

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The American Flag and Its Flying Rules

The Flag of the United States of America is a symbol of freedom and liberty to which Americans pledge their allegiance. Standing at attention and facing the flag with their right hand over the heart, they recite:

«I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.»

The flag’s 13 alternating red and white stripes represent the 13 original colonies. Its 50 white stars on a blue field represent the 50 states.

The colors on the flag represent:

If you need additional information or have a question, you can email the Department of State’s protocol office at protocolhelp@state.gov.

To order a U.S. flag that has flown over the Capitol, contact your senator’s office.

According to U.S. Flag Code, a worn out American flag should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

Fly the American Flag at Half-Staff

The United States flag flies at half-staff (or half-mast) when the nation or a state is in mourning. The president, through a presidential proclamation, a state governor, or the mayor of the District of Columbia can order flags to fly at half-staff. Most often, this is done to mark the death of a government official, military member, or first responder; in honor of Memorial Day or other national day of remembrance; or following a national tragedy.

Learn more from the Department of Veterans Affairs about the rules and traditions for flying the flag at half-staff.

Do you have a question?

Ask a real person any government-related question for free. They’ll get you the answer or let you know where to find it.

How Many Stars Are on the American Flag?

The US flag is also known as the Star-Spangled Banner.

The American flag, also nicknamed the Star-Spangled Banner or Old Glory, has thirteen stripes of white alternating with red (bottom and top), and a blue canton with fifty white 5-pointed stars which are arranged in nine horizontal rows. The thirteen red and white stripes represent the thirteen colonies which gained their independence from Britain and became the first American states. The fifty white stars represent all the fifty American states. The original thirteen stars American flag was adopted on June 14, 1777.

The History of the American Flag

After gaining their independence in July 1776, the continental congress which was governing the thirteen states during the American Revolution adopted the Grand Union flag as the first American flag. The United States used it until June 14, 1777, when the flag resolution was approved which stated that the American flag should have thirteen red and white bands with thirteen white stars on a blue rectangle symbolizing a new constellation. The 13-stars flag was officially flown for the first time at Fort Schuyler on August 3, 1777. The resolution did not specify the arrangement of the stars or dictate that the flag should have seven red and six white. The continental congress left the details to the designer, which resulted in numerous flag designs with different star arrangements with the famous one being the Betsy Ross flag. Francis Hopkinson designed the first American flag with the thirteen stars arranged in a row in 1777.

Later Flag Acts

The number of stars and stripes on the flag increased to fifteen after the Kentucky and Vermont became part of the United States and became official on May 1, 1795. The fifteen-star flag inspired Scott Key to write the current American national anthem. A plan was passed on April 4, 1818, to reduce the number of stripes to thirteen and increase the number of stars on the flag with every admission of a new state as per Captain Samuel Reid’s suggestion. The act specified that the new flag becomes official on July 4 of the year when a new state gains statehood. The twenty-star flag was adopted on July 4, 1818, after Tennessee, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana and Indiana gained statehood.

Before the United States adopted the 48-stars flag they had no official arrangement for the stars on the canton, and throughout the nineteenth century, there were many flag designs with various star patterns. The recent flag change was done in 1959 and 1960 after Alaska and Hawaii gained statehood becoming the forty-ninth and fiftieth states respectively. The longest used American flag design is the current 50-stars design which has been flown since 1960, followed by the 48-stars design which was used for forty-seven years.

The Future of the American Flag

Puerto Rico held a statehood referendum in November 2012, but the legitimacy of the election was disputed. They held another referendum on June 11, 2017, and even though over 97% of the people approved the idea of statehood, only 23% of the registered voters participated. Washington DC held a referendum election in November 2016, and 86% of the voters approved the proposal. Therefore there is a possibility of both Washington DC and Puerto Rico gaining statehood, and this will means two more stars will be added on the flag, but their applications to the Union requires congressional approval.

How many stars are on the American flag?

THERE are 50 stars on the American flag, representing the 50 states of the USA.

How many stars are on the American flag?

There are 50 white stars on the American flag, all of which are equal in size and have five points each.

They are arranged in a pattern of nine horizontal rows, alternating six and five stars per row, within a blue rectangle in the top left corner of the flag.

The stars represent the 50 United States of America, and each time a new state enters the union, a new star is added on the following July 4.

The flag has had 50 stars since one was added for Hawaii on July 4, 1960, and official designs are afoot for up to 55 stars when new states are welcomed in.

The colours used for the American flag are known as Old Glory, and the design has been the basis for other flags including Chile, Puerto Rico, Liberia, and Malaysia.

«Old Glory» was apparently exclaimed by Captain William Driver, when an American flag was unfurled on his ship in 1831.

The 13 equal horizontal stripes on the flag, which alternate red and white, represent the original states, that were then British colonies.

When did the flag have 38 stars?

Historically, the number of stars on the American flag has reflected the number of united states in the USA.

On July 4, 1877, the 100th anniversary of the American flag, a 38th star was added after Colorado joined on August 1, 1876.

Prior to this, the flag had added just one star at a time since July 4, 1822, as states joined the union one by one.

The flag sported 38 stars for 13 years and five presidencies: Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and William Henry Harrison.

However, by the time the flag eventually came to add more stars on July 4, 1890, there were five more to add, as North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, and Idaho had all joined the union.

How many stars did the American flag originally have?

However, the first American flag design to incorporate stars, revealed on June 14, 1777, featured 13 stars.

These represented the 13 states, which were then colonies, that formed the first union.

The 13 stars were set in a circle to indicate equality among them.

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After the American Revolution began, the first, unofficial national flag—known as the Continental Colours (or, sometimes, as the Grand Union Flag, the Cambridge Flag, the Somerville Flag, or the Union Flag)—was hoisted on a towering 76-foot (23-metre) liberty pole at Prospect Hill in Charlestown (now in Somerville), Massachusetts, on January 1, 1776; it was raised at the behest of Gen. George Washington, whose headquarters were nearby. The flag had 13 horizontal stripes (probably of red and white or of red, white, and blue) and, in the canton, the first version of the British Union Flag (Union Jack). As the flag of the Continental Army, it flew at forts and on naval vessels. Another popular early flag, that of the 1765 Sons of Liberty, had only nine red and white stripes. Various versions of “Don’t Tread on Me” coiled-rattlesnake flags appeared on many 18th-century American colonial banners, including several flown by military units during the Revolutionary War. The version carried by the Minutemen of Culpeper County, Virginia, for example, included not only the rattlesnake and the “Don’t Tread on Me” motto but also Virginia patriot Patrick Henry’s famous words “Liberty or Death.”

The first official national flag, formally approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, was the Stars and Stripes. That first Flag Resolution read, in toto, “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field representing a new constellation.” The layout of the stars was left undefined, and many patterns were used by flag makers. The designer of the flag—most likely Congressman Francis Hopkinson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence from Philadelphia—may have had a ring of stars in mind to symbolize the new constellation. Today that pattern is popularly known as the “ Betsy Ross flag,” although the widely circulated story that she made the first Stars and Stripes and came up with the ring pattern is unsubstantiated. Rows of stars (4-5-4 or 3-2-3-2-3) were common, but many other variations also existed. The new Stars and Stripes formed part of the military colours carried on September 11, 1777, at the Battle of the Brandywine, perhaps its first such use.

The Stars and Stripes changed on May 1, 1795, when Congress enacted the second Flag Resolution, which mandated that new stars and stripes be added to the flag when new states were admitted to the Union. The first two new states were Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792). (One such flag was the 1,260-square-foot [117-square-metre] “Star-Spangled Banner,” made by Mary Pickersgill, that Francis Scott Key saw at Fort McHenry in September 1814, which inspired him to write the patriotic poem that later supplied the lyrics of the national anthem.) In 1818, after five more states had been admitted, Congress enacted the third and last Flag Resolution, requiring that henceforth the number of stripes should remain 13, the number of stars should always match the number of states, and any new star should be added on the July 4 following a state’s admission. This has been the system ever since. In all, from 1777 to 1960 (after the admission of Hawaii in 1959), there were 27 versions of the flag—25 involving changes in the stars only. An executive order signed by Pres. William Howard Taft on October 29, 1912, standardized for the first time the proportions and relative sizes of the elements of the flag; in 1934 the exact shades of colour were standardized.

Three Cheers for the Red, White, and Blue Facts about the United States Flag

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Until the Executive Order of June 24, 1912, neither the order of the stars nor the proportions of the flag was prescribed. Consequently, flags dating before this period sometimes show unusual arrangements of the stars and odd proportions, these features being left to the discretion of the flag maker. In general, however, straight rows of stars and proportions similar to those later adopted officially were used. The principal acts affecting the flag of the United States are the following:

NUMBER OF STARS IN THE U.S. FLAG, AND ADDITIONAL STATES REPRESENTED
1777 TO PRESENT

Additional states with date of entry into Union

Delaware (December 7, 1787)

Pennsylvania (December 12, 1787)

New Jersey (December 18, 1787)

Georgia (January 2, 1788)

Connecticut (January 9, 1788)

Massachusetts (February 6, 1788)

Maryland (April 28, 1788)

South Carolina (May 23, 1788)

New Hampshire (June 21, 1788)

Virginia (June 25, 1788)

New York (July 26, 1788)

North Carolina (November 21, 1789)

Rhode Island (May 29, 1790)

Vermont (March 4, 1791)

Kentucky (June 1, 1792)

Tennessee (June 1, 1796)

Ohio (March 1, 1803)

Louisiana (April 30, 1812)

Indiana (December 11, 1816)

Mississippi (December 10, 1817)

Illinois (December 3, 1818)

Alabama (December 14, 1819)

Maine (March 15, 1820)

Missouri (August 10, 1821)

Arkansas (June 15, 1836)

Michigan (Jan 26, 1837)

Florida (March 3, 1845)

Texas (December 29, 1845)

Iowa (December 28, 1846)

Wisconsin (May 29, 1848)

California (September 9, 1850)

Minnesota (May 11, 1858)

Oregon (February 14, 1859)

Kansas (January 29, 1861)

West Virginia (June 20, 1863)

Nevada (October 31, 1864)

Nebraska (March 1, 1867)

Colorado (August 1, 1876)

North Dakota (November 2, 1889)

South Dakota (November 2, 1889)

Montana (November 8, 1889)

Washington (November 11, 1889)

Idaho (July 3, 1890)

Wyoming (July 10, 1890)

Utah (January 4, 1896)

Oklahoma (November 16, 1907)

New Mexico (January 6, 1912)

Arizona (February 14, 1912)

Alaska (January 3, 1959)

Hawaii (August 21, 1959)

Prepared by the Armed Forces History Collections,
in cooperation with Public Inquiry Services,
Smithsonian Institution