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Northern Mariana Islands

Last modified: 2025-09-13 by ian macdonald
Keywords: northern mariana islands | oceania | cup | star | wreath | commonwealth ports authority |
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image by Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025


See also:


Description of the flag

The flag of Northern Mariana Islands consists of three symbols: a white star representing the United States, a gray latte stone representing the Chamorro people, and a multi-colored mwarmwar (floral wreath) representing the Carolinians. The mwarmwar is made from the green ylang-ylang (langilang; Cananga odorata), the white plumeria (flores mayo or seyúr; Plumeria alba), the red peacock flower (angagha; Caesalpinia pulcherrima), and the pink Pacific basil (teibwo; Ocimum tenuiflorum). Its dark blue background represents the Pacific Ocean and the Mariana Trench.
Flag ratio is 20:39. The current version adopted on 4th July 1995.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Northern_Mariana_Islands

Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025

It seems that the flag was changed some time in 1994 or early 1995. Gerard van der Vaart told me that Mr. Smith shows a color copy he obtained from the American factory which produces the flag for the Northern Marianas administration. In practice the flag is made by this factory in proportions 2:3 and 3:5. It seems that there was an intermediate version of the flag with a bit different wreath.
Željko Heimer, 8 March 1996

Dorling Kindersley Pocket Book says:

"The original flag was adopted in 1972, but has undergone several modifications, including the addition of the flower wreath."
Smith (1980) says "Officially adopted 31 March 1972" and shows the first design (without wreath).
Ivan Sache, 4 April 1999

The district adopted the flag on 31 March 1972; the territory adopted the flag on 4 July 1976 (same flag), and modified the design in 1981.
Jaume Ollé, 5 April 1999

The constitution defines the flag (Article XXII), but there is no illustration nor color specification.
https://cnmilaw.org/cons.php#gsc.tab=0

This page gives color specification in Hex values, but illustrates a previous design of flag: https://usflags.design/northern-mariana-islands/

Other sources for colors:

The Olympic Flag Manuals don’t illustrate this flag, because Northern Mariana Islands is not member of IOC or IPC.

The French Navy Books give an illustration, but there is no any color specification.

Vexilla Mundi gives colors in Pantone system: PMS 286C (blue), PMS White, PMS 421C (grey), PMS 1788C (red), PMS 102C (yellow), PMS 239C (lilac), PMS 153C (brown), PMS 382C (light green), PMS 369C (green), and PMS Black.

Wikipedia refers to the constitutional convention, illustrates the flag, but doesn’t give color specification.

Flag Color Codes gives the following color values:
Blue: Hex #0033A1, RGB 0-51-161, CMYK 100-68-0-37, Pantone 286C, RAL 5005
White: Hex #FFFFFF, RGB 255-255-255, CMYK 0-0-0-0, Pantone and RAL N/A
Grey: Hex #B1B4B3, RGB 177-180-179, CMYK 2-0-1-29, Pantone Cool Gray 5 C, RAL 7038

Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025


Governor's Flag

The official flag of the Governor's Office is the CNMI (Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands) flag.
Jennifer E. Castro
Communications Manager, PIO
Office of the Governor
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
13 December 2003


Detail of the Seal

image by Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025

[Click on seal for larger image.]

The seal (which also appears on the flag) consists of three symbols: a white star representing the USA, a grey latte stone representing the Chamorro people and a multi-coloured floral wreath representing the Carolinians.
Christopher Southworth, 7 October 2024

Images of seal:
https://www.commerce.gov.mp/
https://www.nga.org/governor/gov-arnold-palacios/
https://www.facebook.com/photo
Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025


Commonwealth Ports Authority

image by Jaume Olle, 13 September 2008

A photo shown on Flickr taken by “50storms” (Michiko Igarashi) on 11 Jun 2006 is captioned “In front of the Rota Airport. Top: flag of the USA Left: flag of Rota (I guess) Right: flag of the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands”. The yellow flag bears a black-and-white seal in the centre.
Jan Mertens, 2 April 2008

I would say it is the flag of the Commonwealth Ports Authority, which runs Saipan Intl. Airport, Port of Saipan, Tinian Intl. Airport, Port of Tinian, Rota Intl. Airport, and Rota West Harbor. See its seal, obviously very similar to the one on the yellow flag of the picture, at http://www.cpa.gov.mp/ and especially, for a black and white picture of the seal, at http://www.cpa.gov.mp/rotarpt.asp.
Olivier Touzeau, 2 April 2008

The logo shows an airplane (modern small jet) and a ship (modern cargo) above and extending the same element as on the national flag (a cup?), depicted as on its previous version.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 May 2008

I visited Northern Mariana Commonwealth Ports Authority in Saipan Airport on Sep 12 2008. The supervisor says the official color is orange and the logo color is blue in white disc and the flag proportion is 1: 2. Due to tropical heavy rains and strong sunshine the flag easily loses orange color and it can look pale yellow.
Nozomi Kariyasu, 13 September 2008

Images of flag:
https://www.shutterstock.com/hu/image
https://www.postguam.com/news/cnmi

Image of emblem:
https://www.facebook.com/photo

Zoltan Horvath, 26 August 2025