flag: U.S. Outlying Islands
Unicode: 1F1FA 1F1F2
Description
A rectangular flag representing the country of the United States. It features 13 horizontal stripes, alternating red and white, with a blue canton (upper left corner) containing 50 white stars.
Group:
Flags > country-flag
Status:
fully-qualified
Emotion:
Generally represents patriotism, national pride, or an association with the United States. Can evoke feelings of freedom, democracy, or power.
Backstory
The flag emoji for the United States (🇺🇸) is part of a larger set of regional indicator symbol pairs, introduced in Unicode 6.0 (2010). These pairs are formed by combining two regional indicator symbols (letters A-Z) to represent a specific country or region, based on their ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. 'US' corresponds to 'United States'.
Usage Examples
- Celebrating Independence Day: 'Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸🎉'
- Referring to American products: 'Made in the 🇺🇸'
- Discussing US news: 'What's happening in the 🇺🇸 today?'
- Identifying nationality: 'Visiting from the 🇺🇸'
Cultural Differences
Western culture:
Widely recognized as the flag of the USA, often used in contexts of American holidays, sports, or political discussions. Can be a symbol of either pride or critique, depending on the context and individual perspective.
East Asian culture:
Recognized as the flag of the USA; usage is typically descriptive, to identify the United States, or in discussions related to international relations or American pop culture.