American Flag Dimensions
Jan 15th, 2007 by Larry Hendrick
In 1954, Dwight D Eisenhower sign the United States Flag Code, making it the standard for every aspect of the American Flag. He also added an executive order in 1959 to clarify a few missing components. I find the dimensions for the flag very interesting.
Flags today come in easy to remember sizes, 3X5, 4X6, 5X8, but the flag code clearly indicates that the size ratio for the US Flag is 1:1.9. Let’s do the math for the difference.
Current Flag Sizes
| Hoist | Fly |
| 3′ | 5′ |
| 4′ | 6′ |
| 5′ | 8′ |
| 10′ | 15′ |
| Hoist | Fly |
| 3′ | 5.7′ |
| 4′ | 7.6′ |
| 5′ | 9.5 |
| 10′ | 19′ |
As you can see, the flags we see today are shorter than called for in the code, and the larger the flag, the greater the discrepancy. Seeing a flag with correct dimensions would look funny, because we’re used to seeing these “stubby” flags.
State Flags
Most state flags have the dimensions put forth in their State Flag Code, as well. For instance, the Texas State Flag Code calls for a flag with a ration of 2:3, yet the Texas flags we see today are manufactured to the same dimensions as the current US flag, 1:1.67
[...] Code is in laying out the proportions for each component of the U.S. flag. Previously I wrote about the dimensions for length and width of the American flag, but many other details are [...]