Historic Counties Institute

Championing our Historic Counties

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Geography · Identity · Community

The county flags of Britain

Discover the designs, stories and shared identities behind Britain’s county flags.

Find your county’s flag

Explore the complete county directory, with every design’s status clearly identified.

86 counties shown

Registration checked 24 October 2026 · What the labels mean

England39 counties

Scotland34 counties

Counties without a registered flag

Wales13 counties

Counties without a registered flag

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A useful distinction

Every flag has a history.
Every label has a meaning.

Registered county flag

Recorded for public use

The design is listed in the Flag Institute’s UK Flag Registry. Registration records the flag, not the creation or boundaries of the county.

Understand registration →
Established · unregistered

Used, but not registered

Evidence supports county use of these designs. Brecknockshire and Cardiganshire remain distinct from registered flags.

Established designs and proposals →
No registered county flag

A county still has its identity

The absence of a Registry entry does not diminish a county. Proposals and council banners are not substituted as registered flags.

Read the status guidance →

The story behind the symbols

From medieval emblems
to community competitions.

Roses, crosses, birds, waves and heraldic beasts give visual form to the counties’ histories and landscapes. Some designs have centuries of association; others are recent creations chosen by the people they represent.

A county flag celebrates an enduring geographical and cultural identity. It is distinct from a council’s logo or complete coat of arms.

Explore the history and meaning →

Existing RealCounties resources

Keep exploring.

Use our county references for the geography behind the flags, or open the interactive map to examine the geographic county boundaries.

County reference indexExplore the map ↗

Our resources collection includes the existing England county flags poster and Great Britain county flags poster.

Research: British County Flags, the Flag Institute UK Flag Registry and the Historic Counties Trust. Geographic county framework: the Historic Counties Standard, published by the Historic Counties Trust. Monmouthshire follows HCI’s Welsh grouping.

Registered flag artwork: Flag Institute, except where individually credited. Brecknockshire: Hogweard; Cardiganshire: AlexD, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0; original vector artwork rasterised and optimised to WebP. Read full acknowledgements and scope.