The national flag of the United States (often known as the American flag or the U.S. flag) consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton (known as the "union") bearing fifty small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows, where rows of six stars alternate with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states, and the 13 stripes represent the thirteen British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain and thus became the first states in the U.S. The flag is often referred to as the Star-Spangled Banner, Stars and Stripes, and Old Glory.

Diverse versions of the national flag exist, as it changed due to the changes that the nation underwent. Only in 1960 was the version that includes fifty stars adopted.