The flags of Oceania
Four flags carry the Union Jack, six are blue, and two are confused constantly. Fourteen countries, a few simple rules.
Oceania has only 14 countries, but it is the continent where flags resemble each other most, because they all tell the same story: an ocean, a British empire, and constellations you can only see in the southern hemisphere.
The four Union Jacks
Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu keep the British flag in the upper canton, near the hoist. All four are fully independent states — the canton is a legacy, not a status.
The Australia / New Zealand confusion is the most frequent in the whole game, and it is settled in two seconds: Australia has six white stars, including a large Commonwealth Star below the canton; New Zealand has only four, red with white borders. More stars, and white ones → Australia.
Fiji stands apart with its light blue field and coat of arms, Tuvalu with nine yellow stars laid out exactly as its nine islands sit on the map.
The Pacific blues
The rest of the continent sits on blue fields evoking the ocean, with one simple emblem: the offset yellow disc of Palau (the moon, not the sun), the four stars of Micronesia, the twenty-four-pointed white star of the Marshall Islands, and the seven-pointed star of Nauru below a golden line — the line is the equator, and the star marks the island's exact position.
These flags are genuine maps: that is the best way to remember them.
The odd ones out
Papua New Guinea is the only national flag designed by a teenager — Susan Karike, fifteen, in 1971 — and one of the few split on the diagonal: the Southern Cross on one side, a bird of paradise on the other. Samoa, Tonga and the Solomon Islands complete the list.
All 14 flags
| Flag | Country | Capital |
|---|---|---|
 | Australia | Canberra |
 | Fiji | Suva |
 | Marshall Islands | Majuro |
 | Solomon Islands | Honiara |
 | Kiribati | South Tarawa |
 | Micronesia | Palikir |
 | Nauru | Yaren |
 | New Zealand | Wellington |
 | Palau | Ngerulmud |
 | Papua New Guinea | Port Moresby |
 | Samoa | Apia |
 | Tonga | Nuku'alofa |
 | Tuvalu | Funafuti |
 | Vanuatu | Port Vila |
Frequently asked
How do you tell Australia from New Zealand?
Which independent countries keep the Union Jack on their flag?
What does the star on Nauru’s flag represent?
Do you recognise these flags?
GeoG's Flags mode plays continent by continent: run Oceania on its own, or all 195 flags of the world.
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