Twin flags: the ones that share the same cake

In CakeFlag you don’t see the flag: you see a cake made of its colors. Stripes, stars and coats of arms disappear, and all that’s left is how much room each color takes. And that’s where a problem shows up: some flags, turned into cakes, are identical.

How we measured similarity

For every pair of flags we added up the share of cake they have in common. If both have red, the red they share counts; if one has 50% and the other 33%, they share 33%. Two shades count as the same color if they look close enough (the blue of France and the blue of Russia, for example). It’s the same rule CakeFlag uses to tell you which colors you got right.

With 208 flags there are 21,528 possible pairs. 133 of them share 95% of their cake or more. These are the biggest families.

Half red, half white

Indonesia, Monaco and Greenland are 50% red and 50% white: as cakes, 100% identical. Indonesia and Monaco are almost the same flag in real life too (red on top, white below); what changes is the shape of the rectangle and, slightly, the shade of red. Greenland has a circle, but it splits the two colors evenly.

Poland is the same flag upside down (white on top) and shares 99.9%. Malta makes it with 99.7%: the grey cross in its corner takes away a little bit of white.

Blue, white and red in thirds

The biggest family. France has vertical stripes; Russia and the Netherlands, horizontal ones, in a different order. As cakes they’re the same: a third of each color. Paraguay (99.4%) and Slovenia (99%) just make the cut: their coats of arms barely move the numbers.

The other famous pairs

• Romania and Chad: blue, yellow and red in vertical stripes. They’re almost identical in real life too; the difference is a slightly darker blue in Chad.
• Ireland and Ivory Coast: green, white and orange, in reverse order. 99.9% in common.
• Belgium and Germany: black, yellow and red. One in vertical stripes, the other in horizontal ones. 99.9%.
• Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Madagascar: green, white and red in thirds, each with its own design or stripe order.
• Australia and New Zealand: both with the British flag in the corner and stars on navy blue. 97.8%.

The ones you wouldn’t expect

Some twins don’t look alike at all at first sight:

• Saudi Arabia and Macau share 99.6%: both are almost entirely green, with a white design in the middle that covers less than 8% of the cake.
• Austria and Bahrain: two thirds red and one third white, 99.2%. Austria in stripes, Bahrain with a serrated edge.
• Micronesia and Somalia: almost entirely light blue with white stars, 98%.
• Argentina and Guatemala: two thirds light blue and one third white. They share 97.9%; what sets them apart is Argentina’s yellow sun.

Why some are never the flag of the day

If the cake and CakeFlag’s first clues aren’t enough to tell two flags apart, guessing would be pure luck. That’s why 21 flags are never the flag of the day: among them Indonesia, Monaco, Poland, Romania, Chad, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Australia and New Zealand. You can still type them as a guess.

On every country page you’ll find its three “flags that look alike”, with the share of cake they have in common.

Try it yourself

Can you tell Italy from Hungary with just the cake and the clues? Play CakeFlag: the design clue (vertical or horizontal stripes) is usually the tiebreaker.