Vatican City: Flag and Facts
Vatican City's flag is split into two vertical halves, yellow on the left and white on the right, with crossed keys beneath a three-tiered papal crown on the white side.
- Official name
- Vatican City State
- Capital
- Vatican City
- Region
- Southern Europe
- Population
- 1,000
- Languages
- Italian, Latin
- Currency
- Euro
- People
- Vatican
- Calling code
- +3
- Highest point
- Vatican Gardens (Vatican Hill) 78 m
- Independence
- 11 February 1929
- National symbols
- crossed keys under a papal tiara
- Borders
- Italy
About Vatican City
For over a thousand years, popes governed parts of the Italian peninsula as rulers, not just church leaders. In the mid-19th century the new Kingdom of Italy took many of those Papal States, and Rome itself was annexed in 1870. The standoff ended in 1929, when three Lateran Treaties created the independent state of Vatican City. A 1984 agreement with Italy updated some of the old terms.
This is a tiny place: just 0.44 square kilometers, not even three-quarters the size of a famous park in the US capital Only about 1,000 people live inside it, and Italy surrounds it completely. The land is a low urban hill. Its highest spot is in the Vatican Gardens at 78 meters, and its lowest is Saint Peter's Square at 19 meters. Italian and Latin are the listed languages.
Did you know?
- Vatican City uses the euro as its currency.
- Its anthem is the Hymnus Pontificius, or Pontifical Anthem.
- Independence is dated to 11 February 1929.
Want to test yourself? The random flag generator has a quiz mode, and the full flags of the world page shows every flag at once.
Questions about Vatican City
What do the colors of the Vatican flag mean?
The yellow half represents the pope's spiritual authority, and the white half his earthly authority.
What kind of government does Vatican City have?
It is an ecclesiastical elective monarchy, and it calls itself an absolute monarchy.
Sources
- CIA World Factbook, checked October 8, 2026
- REST Countries data (mledoze/countries), checked October 8, 2026
- Flag artwork: flag-icons (MIT), checked October 8, 2026
Facts are compiled from these open sources and rewritten in our own words. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.