Flag: England Emoji
U+1F3F4 U+E0067 U+E0062 U+E0065 U+E006E U+E0067 U+E007F:england:About Flag: England 🏴
Flag: England () is part of the Flags group in Unicode. Added in Unicode E5.0. Type on GitHub and Slack to use it. Click copy above to grab it, paste it anywhere.
Works in iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, Instagram, Twitter, Gmail, and every app that supports Unicode.
Meaning varies across cultures, see cultural notes below.
Scroll down for the full story: meaning, trends, combos, and more.
How it looks
What does it mean?
The flag of England, the Cross of St George: a red upright cross on a white field, 3:5 ratio, with no other devices. One of the oldest continuously used national symbols in Europe, in everyday use since around the 13th century and formally tied to Edward III's founding of the Order of the Garter in 1348. The flag predates the Union Jack by 250 years and sits as its top layer: the red-on-white cross that covers the center of the Union Flag is this flag, unchanged.
🏴 behaves differently from 🇬🇧. It's a specifically English signal, used at moments where Britishness isn't the point. English Premier League and international football owns the biggest share: away-end Three Lions face-paint, 'IT'S COMING HOME' memes, and the Wembley crowd at a men's or women's England tournament knockout. St George's Day (April 23) drives a sharp annual spike. In 2025, 🏴 also became a flag in a public political argument: the Operation Raise the Colours campaign attached it to anti-immigration messaging, and British Muslim communities, Labour politicians, and football clubs have pushed back with reclaim-the-flag responses.
The emoji is a seven-codepoint Unicode tag sequence built on (black flag) plus the ISO 3166-2:GB-ENG region tag, terminated with . Added in Emoji 5.0 (2017) alongside Scotland and Wales, the three subdivision flags that Unicode approved after years of campaigning. Rendering support is still patchy: Apple, Microsoft, Google, Twitter/X, Facebook, and WhatsApp show the real flag; some Linux distros and older versions of Android fall back to a plain black flag and the text tag.
🏴 runs on three overlapping uses: sport, St George's Day, and an active political argument.
Football is the dominant driver. The Lionesses winning Euro 2025 on penalties against Spain drove the biggest 🏴 spike in the emoji's history. Downing Street was draped in St George's flags the morning of the homecoming. BBC viewership peaked at 12.2 million for the final, the biggest TV moment of the year. Men's football drives recurring spikes around Three Lions tournaments, Premier League matchdays, and FA Cup Finals. The Cricket's Ashes series, English rugby, and Wimbledon round out the sporting calendar.
St George's Day (April 23) runs as the quiet annual spike. Pubs fly the flag, schools run themed lessons, and Labour-and-right-wing politicians compete over what the day means. Parliament debates making it a bank holiday every few years. It hasn't passed, yet.
The political argument. Since summer 2025, the Operation Raise the Colours campaign has tied St George's flags to lampposts in anti-immigration messaging, led by figures linked to the former English Defence League. Counter-movements from British Muslim communities, mosque forecourts, and Labour Party accounts have posted 🏴 defiantly to reclaim it as everyone's flag. 58% of 2024 Labour voters view the flag as racist-coded; only 19% of Conservatives do, per polling cited by NPR. The emoji has become a live battleground in English identity debates.
Niche uses. The red-on-white cross shows up in historical reenactment, Crusades-era medieval gaming, and a small Order of the Garter / royal-heritage corner of British history TikTok.
The flag of England: the Cross of St George, a red upright cross on a white field. England's national flag since Edward III's 1348 founding of the Order of the Garter, and the top layer of the Union Jack.
🏴 in the British Isles
The England emoji palette
England at a glance
- 🏰Capital: London (51.51°N, 0.13°W)
- 👥Population: ~57.69 million (2025, ~83% of UK total)
- 🗺️Area: 130,279 km²
- 💷Currency: Pound sterling (GBP, £)
- 🗣️Languages: English (primary), Cornish (minority)
- 🐉Patron saint: St George (feast day April 23)
- ⏰Time zone: GMT (UTC+0), BST in summer
- 📅National day: St George's Day, April 23 (not a bank holiday)
Emoji combos
🏴 vs the British Isles, 2020 to 2026
Origin story
The red-on-white cross was a crusader symbol long before it was English. It shows up as a Christian battle emblem from around the 10th century onward, most visibly as the banner of the Republic of Genoa, which adopted it for their fleet. A widely repeated tradition holds that English ships paid Genoa for the right to fly the Cross of St George in the Mediterranean from 1190, buying themselves the Genoese navy's protection.
Adoption by England. Edward I (1272 to 1307) is the king the documentary record ties to the flag's English adoption. A 1277 royal account lists cloth purchased to make pennoncels 'of the arms of Saint George' for the king's foot soldiers, the earliest solid evidence of England using the cross as an organizational emblem. St George himself was a Roman soldier and Christian martyr from Cappadocia (modern Turkey) with no historical connection to England; he became England's patron saint because of his crusading reputation.
Edward III and the Order of the Garter (1348). Edward III founded the Order of the Garter, the oldest English chivalric order, and adopted St George as its patron. From that point, St George was the patron saint of England (displacing Edmund the Martyr), and the red-on-white cross became the national flag in a more or less modern sense.
Union Jack layer. When James VI and I united the English and Scottish crowns in 1603, the Cross of St George was layered over the Scottish Saltire to form the first Union Flag in 1606. The English cross sits on top, which is why the center of the modern Union Jack is red-on-white, the same flag you see here.
Modern status. Fell out of everyday civilian use for most of the 20th century, outcompeted by the Union Jack. Returned decisively through football, starting with Euro 96 in England. The Three Lions song and face-painted away ends made the flag a sporting identity marker for a generation. By the 2010s, it was back at schools, pubs, and civic ceremonies on April 23. The 2024 Nike England kit controversy and the 2025 Operation Raise the Colours campaign have since turned it into a contested political symbol as well.
The Cross of St George, close up
Ratio 3:5 · Adopted 1348
Around the world
Inside England
Young urban posters tend to use 🏴 mainly around football. Older and more rural English users use it more broadly: St George's Day, cricket, village fetes, and pub displays. Post-2025 it carries political weight that it didn't pre-Operation-Raise-the-Colours, and many English users now think twice before posting it in a non-sporting context.
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland
Scottish, Welsh, and Northern Irish users rarely post 🏴 except to distinguish themselves from it. It's pointedly not their flag. Scottish football fans famously support 'anyone but England'; Welsh fans do the same during rugby Six Nations; Northern Irish usage splits along community lines.
United States
American users post 🏴 casually around Premier League content (Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City all have huge US followings), Shakespeare / English-literature posts, and anything with Henry VIII or the Tudors. Americans often use 🇬🇧 and 🏴 interchangeably; British users rarely do.
British Muslim and Black British communities
After the 2025 anti-immigration flag campaigns, several UK mosques and British Muslim creators began posting 🏴 on their own profiles as a deliberate reclamation. Coverage in the Bridge Initiative at Georgetown documented the shift: 'this is our flag too' became a recurring caption.
No. St George was a Roman soldier from Cappadocia, modern-day Turkey, martyred around 303 AD. He has no historical connection to England; he was adopted as patron saint in the 14th century for his crusading reputation. He's also patron of Georgia, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Moscow, Portugal, and a dozen other places.
Since August 2025, the Operation Raise the Colours campaign has tied St George's flags (and Union Jacks) to lampposts in anti-immigration messaging. Polling cited by NPR found 58% of 2024 Labour voters see the flag as racist-coded; only 19% of Conservatives do. British Muslim communities, Labour politicians, and football clubs have publicly reclaimed it with 'this is our flag too' posts.
When 🏴 spikes: the English calendar
- 🐉April 23: St George's Day: England's patron saint. Not a bank holiday, but the biggest 🏴 spike independent of football. Morris dancers, roses in buttonholes, parish flags.
- 🏆May 23, 2026: FA Cup Final: Wembley, 85,000 capacity, the oldest knockout cup in world football. The men's final is first-weekend-of-May with the women's final often preceding it.
- 🎾Late June to mid-July: Wimbledon fortnight: The third Grand Slam tennis event. Strawberries and cream, royal box guests, Middle Sunday's traditions.
- 🏏Late July to August: The Ashes / Test cricket: Against Australia in Ashes years (2027 next). Otherwise summer Tests at Lord's, The Oval, Headingley, Edgbaston, Old Trafford, Trent Bridge.
- ⚽June to July 2026: FIFA World Cup: Three Lions drive the single biggest 🏴 window of the year. Pub fan zones, St George's flags on every car, Downing Street drapes for any deep run.
- 🎉August Bank Holiday weekend: Notting Hill Carnival in London (Britain's biggest street festival) plus the Reading and Leeds Festivals. English summer at its full volume.
- 🎆November 5: Bonfire Night: Guy Fawkes Night. Public bonfires and fireworks in every park, an English civic observance more than a national holiday.
- ⚽December 26: Boxing Day: Premier League football fixtures, Test cricket starts, Boxing Day hunt traditions.
Say it in English
Often confused with
🇬🇧 (Union Jack) is the flag of the United Kingdom as a whole, combining England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. 🏴 is England specifically. Use 🏴 at men's or women's England football. Use 🇬🇧 at the Olympics, Team GB anything, and royal events. Scottish and Welsh users notice the difference.
🇬🇧 (Union Jack) is the flag of the United Kingdom as a whole, combining England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. 🏴 is England specifically. Use 🏴 at men's or women's England football. Use 🇬🇧 at the Olympics, Team GB anything, and royal events. Scottish and Welsh users notice the difference.
🇬🇪 (Georgia) also shows a red upright cross, but on a white field with four smaller red Bolnisi crosses in the quadrants. Sometimes called the Five Cross Flag. The additional small crosses are the instant tell.
🇬🇪 (Georgia) also shows a red upright cross, but on a white field with four smaller red Bolnisi crosses in the quadrants. Sometimes called the Five Cross Flag. The additional small crosses are the instant tell.
🏴 is England. 🇬🇧 is the UK as a whole (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland). Use 🏴 for England football, St George's Day, English cricket, Wimbledon. Use 🇬🇧 for the Olympic team, royal events, passports, and anything specifically British rather than English.
🏴 vs the UK's other flags
The Union Jack. Use for the country as a whole, the Olympic team, and the passport.
Fun facts
- •The red-on-white cross predates England's use of it. It was the banner of the Republic of Genoa in the 11th century, and English ships paid Genoa for the right to fly it in the Mediterranean from 1190.
- •Edward III founded the Order of the Garter in 1348, with St George as its patron. That's when the Cross of St George became England's national flag in anything like a modern sense.
- •🏴 was added to Emoji 5.0 (2017), alongside 🏴 and 🏴. It was the first wave of Unicode tag-sequence flags.
- •The FA (Football Association) was founded in 1863 and is the oldest national football association on earth. The three lions on the men's and women's England badges date to Richard the Lionheart's royal arms in the 1190s.
- •Bangladesh's 🇧🇩 flag was palette-inspired by Japan; England's flag has itself inspired Saint Barts, Catalonia's historical flag, and Genoa's city flag. A few modern Canadian province flags (Manitoba, Ontario) still carry it as a canton.
- •The Lionesses' 12.2 million BBC peak for the Euro 2025 final beat every men's sporting moment of 2025 and made it the year's most-watched single TV event.
- •English Muslim communities and several mosques publicly began flying 🏴 and posting it online in 2025 as a response to the Operation Raise the Colours campaign. 'This is our flag too' became a recurring caption.
Trivia
- Flag of England - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
- Saint George's Cross - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
- Flag: England - Emojipedia (emojipedia.org)
- Order of the Garter - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
- Lionesses Euro 2025 homecoming - England Football (englandfootball.com)
- Nike England kit controversy - Her Football Hub (herfootballhub.com)
- Operation Raise the Colours - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)
- English flag and identity - NPR (npr.org)
- Pride or Prejudice: the English flag - Bridge Initiative (Georgetown) (georgetown.edu)
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