No symbol shows up on more national flags than the star. It’s flexible enough to mean almost anything: a single star for unity or independence, a cluster for member states or islands, a constellation for a hemisphere. The five-pointed star is the most common version by far, though a few flags break the mold entirely, Israel’s six-pointed Star of David, the Marshall Islands’ 24-point star, or Nepal’s sun and moon pairing that only loosely counts as a star at all.
Below, every national flag that carries at least one star, linked through to the story behind it.
One star
Chile · Cuba · Vietnam · Turkey · Ghana · Senegal · Cameroon · Togo · Liberia · Burkina Faso · Guinea-Bissau · Somalia · Congo, Democratic Republic of the · Djibouti · Myanmar · North Korea · Suriname · Timor-Leste · Morocco · Angola · Mozambique · Zimbabwe · Jordan
Two stars
Panama · Sao Tome and Principe
Multiple stars / constellations
United States (50) · China (5) · Brazil (27) · Venezuela (8) · Honduras (5) · Uzbekistan (12) · Turkmenistan (5) · Cape Verde (10) · Equatorial Guinea (6) · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Australia (6) · New Zealand (4) · Papua New Guinea (Southern Cross) · Samoa (Southern Cross) · Solomon Islands (5) · Marshall Islands (1, 24-point) · Micronesia (4) · Syria (3)
Star and crescent
Algeria · Tunisia · Libya · Mauritania · Pakistan · Malaysia · Singapore · Azerbaijan · Comoros
Unique design
Israel (Star of David)