List of Costa Rican flags

This is a list of flags used in Costa Rica. For more information about the national flag, visit the article Flag of Costa Rica.

National Flags

Flag	Date	Use	Description
	1998-	State flag and State ensign	The national flag with the National Coat of Arms inside a white circle in the red strip to the left.
	1998-	National flag and Civil ensign	Five strips blue, white, red, white and blue. The red central stripe with double width than other blue and white strips.

Provinces

See: Provinces of Costa Rica

Flag	Date	Use	Description
		Flag of Alajuela Province	White flag with the Coat of Arms of Alajuela Province in the center.
		Flag of Cartago Province	Two horizontal strips blue and red.
		Flag of Guanacaste Province	Three horizontal strips blue, white and green, with an inverted red triangle to the left.
		Flag of Heredia Province	Three vertical strips yellow, white and red, with the regional Coat of Arms in the central strip.
		Flag of Limón Province	Three horizontal strips green, blue and white.
		Flag of the Puntarenas Province	Two triangles, red (upper left) and green (lower right), crossed by two diagonal joined strips white (lefter) and blue (righter). In the center, a ten-pointed golden star with the cypher "1848" in black characters.
		Flag of San José Province	Blue flag with a five-pointed white star in the center, and bordered with red strips.

Cantons

• 
  Alvarado
• 
  Desamparados
• 
  Palmares
• 
  San Jose
• 
  Upala
• 
  Vásquez de Coronado

Historical flags

Flags

Flag	Date	Use	Description
	1541-1821	Burgundy Cross, flag of the Spanish Overseas Territories	A red saltire resembling two crossed, roughly-pruned (knotted) branches, on a white field.
	1821-1823	Flag of the First Mexican Empire	Three vertical strips green, white and red, with the Imperial Coat of Arms in the center.
	1823	First Costa Rican National Flag	Three horizontal strips blue, yellow and blue.
	1823-1824	Second Costa Rican National Flag	White field with a six-pointed red star.
	1823-1849	Flag of the United Provinces of Central America	Three horizontal strips light blue (upper and lower) and white (central), with the coat of arms in the center.
	1824-1838	First flag of the State of Costa Rica (within the United Provinces of Central America)	Same as UPCA flag, with the State Seal in the lower strip.
	1838-1842	Second flag of the State of Costa Rica (within the United Provinces of Central America)	Three horizontal strips white, blue and white, with the State Seal in blue strip.
	1842-1848	Third flag of the State of Costa Rica (within the United Provinces of Central America)	Three horizontal strips blue, white and b.ue, with the State Seal in white strip.
	1848-1906	First flag after break of UPCA	Same as actual flag, with the National Coat of Arms in the center.
	1906-1964	State flag from 1906 to 1964	The number of stars appeared on Coat of Arms was 5 since 1848. In 1906 the style of Coat of Arms was slightly modified, and the one appeared on State Flag was also modified, narrowed and was put into a white oval lied near to the hoist of the flag.
	1964-1998	State flag from 1964 to 1998	In 1964 a law was passed by government to increase the numbers of the stars from 5 to 7, to reflect the increase of number of its provinces. In 1998 a decree was passed by government about the design of National Coat of Arms, and according to the decree there should be some smoke ejecting from three volcanoes as current look.

Sources

• The Flags of Costa Rica. Flags of the World
• National symbols of Chile. Museums of Costa Rica (in Spanish)