How Many Stars Does the American Flag Have?
The American flag is also known as “The Stars and Stripes,” but how many stars does the American flag have, and how many stripes? There are thirteen stripes, alternating red and white, which represent the thirteen colonies that fought for independence from Britain and then became the first thirteen states. As of 2010, there are fifty stars, one for each state in the union.
The American flag has essentially four elements: red stripes, white stripes, a blue field and white stars. There are seven red stripes and six white stripes, and fifty white stars staggered in nine rows and eleven columns on the blue field. The blue field is the height of the top seven stripes (four red and three white). The fifty stars are staggered with nine alternating rows containing six or five stars each and eleven alternating columns containing five or four stars each. The top and bottom rows each contain six stars, and the left- and right-most columns each contain five stars for a grand total of 50.
Star Arrangements
The United States has held steady at 50 states since Hawaii joined the union in 1959. The 50-star flag was adopted on July 4, 1960, but there were at least 27 other versions of the American flag before that, each with a different number of stars (or none at all), and some with a different number of stripes.
The original flag was composed of the thirteen stripes, but instead of stars in the upper-left corner, the flag contained the British Union Jack. In 1777, however, after America declared her independence, the Union Jack was removed from the flag and replaced with stars to represent the states. Since then, as states have been added to the union, stars have been added to the flag.
In 1818, when the number of stars jumped from 15 to 20, Congress enacted a plan to add a star for each state added to the union, and to put new flag designs in use on the July 4th following each addition. Thus, if five new states were added within a year (as was the case from July 4, 1889 to July 4, 1890), then on July 4, five new stars were added to the flag.
Over the centuries, because the country is big, because news traveled slowly, and because the flags were made by hand, in some cases, there have been multiple arrangements of the stars. For example, when Nebraska was added as a state, and the number of stars on the flag jumped to 37, there were two different possible arrangements of those 37 stars. On one version, the stars were arranged in five rows, with the top and bottom rows containing eight stars each and the middle three rows containing seven stars each. On the other version of the 37-star flag, the stars were arranged in two concentric circles. The inner circle contained 13 stars, and the outer circle contained 24.
Additional States Added
The question now is, “What will happen if another state is added to the union?” With some parties advocating for the addition of Puerto Rico as the 51st state and others rallying for the statehood of the District of Columbia, this is a valid question.
The United States Army Institute of Heraldry already has plans drawn up for flags with up to 56 stars. One possible 51-star flag looks very similar to the current flag, with 6 alternating rows of 9 or 8 stars. Another possibility has the stars arranged in four concentric circles with one star at the center.