World flag pie charts

May 28, 2007 2:51 PM

Pie charts that represent the proportional amount of color in each country's national flag. Similar to this (previously), only not as pointed.
posted by tepidmonkey (33 comments total)

Via Information Aesthetics.
posted by tepidmonkey at 2:52 PM on May 28, 2007

You know, just last week I was wondering which country most resembles Pac-Man.* Turns out it's Niue.



* No I wasn't.
posted by L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg at 3:10 PM on May 28, 2007

Mmm, colorful flag pies.

I feel as though I should find it more interesting than I do. It's not that it's less pointed than the art you linked to; it's that there doesn't seem to be any point to it.
posted by cerebus19 at 3:12 PM on May 28, 2007

That "all flags combined one" is pretty cool. It's neat to see all the different shade of red. I wonder how much debate goes into that. "#D21034 will never do, only #CE1126 is worthy of representing the blood spilt in the name of liberty etc."
posted by juv3nal at 3:20 PM on May 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

it's a fun mental challenge to map the discs to countries.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 3:21 PM on May 28, 2007

Some of them are guessable, definitely. I got Argentina, Germany and Cyprus straight away (then realised they're in alphabetical order).
posted by afx237vi at 3:25 PM on May 28, 2007

I had a bitch trying to find the United States; lotso similar charts (then realised they're in alphabetical order).
posted by dgaicun at 3:30 PM on May 28, 2007

I got Libya.
posted by danb at 3:35 PM on May 28, 2007

They should have made the Czech Republic one look identical.
posted by cillit bang at 3:36 PM on May 28, 2007

Wocka wocka wocka.
posted by miss lynnster at 3:39 PM on May 28, 2007

I guessed my flag straight away which is making me feel rather smug. Sure, it was a total fluke and the only one I tried, but still. Might as well feel accomplished where ever I can.
posted by shelleycat at 3:39 PM on May 28, 2007

I like the Albania, it great for a gaming clan symbol.
posted by bhouston at 3:55 PM on May 28, 2007

Without looking, I can tell you the Jolly Roger is not there.
posted by jfuller at 3:58 PM on May 28, 2007

It's easier to guess when you realize they're alphabetical by country name.
posted by Foosnark at 3:59 PM on May 28, 2007

I've always wondered why red, white, and to a lesser extent blue ended up as the most commonly used colours for national flags.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:00 PM on May 28, 2007

cillit bang, I had the same thought.
posted by piratebowling at 4:01 PM on May 28, 2007

Huh. Looks like America has the same amount of red as white. I was expecting more white because I forgot it starts and ends with red, and the stars are white.
Well, you learn something everyday. I was hoping for a bit more today, though.
posted by Citizen Premier at 4:05 PM on May 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

My roommate and I had an argument over whether there was more red or white in the U.S. flag. We decided we couldn't tell because the pie chart was too small, but I bet whoever made the charts has access to the raw percentages.

I do not know why I'm so fascinated by this.
posted by tepidmonkey at 4:13 PM on May 28, 2007

Histogramming this version: 37.7% white (2.0% stars, 35.7% stripes), 40.5% red, 17.8% blue.

(the extra red bar at the top is 4.6%, which makes all the difference)
posted by cillit bang at 4:58 PM on May 28, 2007

I'm fascinated that grey, purple, and brown are not colors used in the flags.
posted by adipocere at 5:37 PM on May 28, 2007

Yeah; you'd think purple would be on at least some of them. Color of royalty and all.

Besides, it seems like different countries would have completely different color symbology. I guess red for blood is pretty obvious, but still.

Also interesting that the yellows are barely distinguishable.
posted by Many bubbles at 6:42 PM on May 28, 2007

Hang on, that doesn't add up. It should be 41.538% red, 39.817% white (36.923% stripes, 2.894% stars) and 18.644% blue. That's for the standard 1.9 ratio. Ratios less than 1.475 have more white than red.

God help me, I actually did the geometry for this
posted by cillit bang at 7:10 PM on May 28, 2007 [4 favorites]

>It's neat to see all the different shade of red. I wonder how much debate goes into that.

Sometimes it gets kinda tense. "It's a veritable chromatic coup d'etat"
posted by philfromhavelock at 7:13 PM on May 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

cillit bang: Thank you for settling that argument.
posted by tepidmonkey at 7:24 PM on May 28, 2007

Red, white green blue yellow teal amber buff lilac crimson. yellow again. aqua cerulean robin's egg turqouise sky metafilter background blue. mediterranean periwinkle azure royal tinky-winky navy midnight saphire true
posted by longsleeves at 8:02 PM on May 28, 2007

I like how the British dependencies are all obvious -- a big chunk of navy blue, a bit of red and white, and slivers of the several colors that make up their little crest.

Also, is Seychelles the first example of Flag 2.0?
posted by Rock Steady at 8:23 PM on May 28, 2007

Whatever happened to just... lavender blue, dilly, dilly... dilly...? Silly.
posted by po at 8:25 PM on May 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

The relative popularity of green+red tells me that a good portion of the world is still using CGA.
posted by Afroblanco at 9:27 PM on May 28, 2007

Beautiful and surprising as an overview graphic! Such an unexpected way to look at flags. I like this better than the originals, especially seeing them all together. A democracy of spectrum. The ones with thin little slices of color are pretty, turns out they're mostly Caribbean.

Kind of curious the limited and somewhat uniform palette.

No purple or pink.
posted by nickyskye at 11:40 PM on May 28, 2007

Ok, now can anyone compile a master pie chart showing the most popular flag colors worldwide (by area)?
posted by Eideteker at 11:51 AM on May 29, 2007

Did you not scroll to the bottom Eideteker?
posted by cillit bang at 2:59 PM on May 29, 2007

Hah, no! I am the victim of whitespace, yet again. Thanks!
posted by Eideteker at 4:24 PM on May 29, 2007

For certain values of fun I did Chicago.
posted by fuzzygerdes at 10:36 AM on May 30, 2007