The regional indicator symbols are a set of 26 alphabetic Unicode characters (A–Z) intended to be used to encode ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes in a way that allows optional special treatment.

These were defined by October 2010 as part of the Unicode 6.0 support for emoji, as an alternative to encoding separate characters for each country flag. Although they can be displayed as Roman letters, it is intended that implementations may choose to display them in other ways, such as by using national flags. The Unicode FAQ indicates that this mechanism should be used and that symbols for national flags will not be directly encoded. This allows the Unicode consortium to avoid any issues surrounding which countries to include (and, de facto, recognize), instead leaving it entirely to the system implementation as to which flags to include (see: partially recognized state).

They are encoded in the range to within the Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement block in the Supplementary Multilingual Plane.

Emoji flag sequences

A pair of regional indicator symbols is referred to as an emoji flag sequence (although it represents a specific region, not a specific flag for that region).

Out of the 676 possible pairs of regional indicator symbols (26 × 26), only 270 are considered valid Unicode region codes. These are a subset of the region sequences in the Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR): All 256 regular region sequences in the CLDR 249 officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes 6 exceptional reservations (Ascension Island, Clipperton Island, Diego Garcia, Ceuta and Melilla, Canary Islands, and Tristan da Cunha) 1 user-assigned temporary country code (Kosovo) Two of the 35 macroregion sequences in the CLDR (EU and UN) All 12 deprecated region sequences in the CLDR (strongly discouraged—intended for backward compatibility only) + flag code region possible renderingalternate possible rendering AC Ascension Island AD Andorra AE United Arab Emirates AF Afghanistan AG Antigua & Barbuda AI Anguilla AL Albania AM Armenia AO Angola AQ Antarctica AR Argentina AS American Samoa AT Austria AU Australia AW Aruba AX Åland Islands AZ Azerbaijan BA Bosnia & Herzegovina BB Barbados BD Bangladesh BE Belgium BF Burkina Faso BG Bulgaria BH Bahrain BI Burundi BJ Benin BL St. Barthélemy BM Bermuda BN Brunei BO Bolivia BQ Caribbean Netherlands BR Brazil BS Bahamas BT Bhutan BV Bouvet Island BW Botswana BY Belarus BZ Belize CA Canada CC Cocos (Keeling) Islands CD Congo-Kinshasa CF Central African Republic CG Congo-Brazzaville CH Switzerland CI Côte d'Ivoire CK Cook Islands CL Chile CM Cameroon CN China CO Colombia CP Clipperton Island CQ Sark CR Costa Rica CU Cuba CV Cape Verde CW Curaçao CX Christmas Island CY Cyprus CZ Czechia DE Germany DG Diego Garcia DJ Djibouti DK Denmark DM Dominica DO Dominican Republic DZ Algeria EA Ceuta & Melilla EC Ecuador EE Estonia EG Egypt EH Western Sahara ER Eritrea ES Spain ET Ethiopia EU European Union FI Finland FJ Fiji FK Falkland Islands FM Micronesia FO Faroe Islands FR France GA Gabon GB United Kingdom GD Grenada GE Georgia GF French Guiana GG Guernsey GH Ghana GI Gibraltar GL Greenland GM Gambia GN Guinea GP Guadeloupe GQ Equatorial Guinea GR Greece GS South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands GT Guatemala GU Guam GW Guinea-Bissau GY Guyana HK Hong Kong SAR China HM Heard Island & McDonald Islands HN Honduras HR Croatia HT Haiti HU Hungary IC Canary Islands ID Indonesia IE Ireland IL Israel IM Isle of Man IN India IO British Indian Ocean Territory IQ Iraq IR Iran IS Iceland IT Italy JE Jersey JM Jamaica JO Jordan JP Japan KE Kenya KG Kyrgyzstan KH Cambodia KI Kiribati KM Comoros KN St. Kitts & Nevis KP North Korea KR South Korea KW Kuwait KY Cayman Islands KZ Kazakhstan LA Laos LB Lebanon LC St. Lucia LI Liechtenstein LK Sri Lanka LR Liberia LS Lesotho LT Lithuania LU Luxembourg LV Latvia LY Libya MA Morocco MC Monaco MD Moldova ME Montenegro MF St. Martin MG Madagascar MH Marshall Islands MK North Macedonia ML Mali MM Myanmar (Burma) MN Mongolia MO Macao SAR China MP Northern Mariana Islands MQ Martinique MR Mauritania MS Montserrat MT Malta MU Mauritius MV Maldives MW Malawi MX Mexico MY Malaysia MZ Mozambique NA Namibia NC New Caledonia NE Niger NF Norfolk Island NG Nigeria NI Nicaragua NL Netherlands NO Norway NP Nepal NR Nauru NU Niue NZ New Zealand OM Oman PA Panama PE Peru PF French Polynesia PG Papua New Guinea PH Philippines PK Pakistan PL Poland PM St. Pierre & Miquelon PN Pitcairn Islands PR Puerto Rico PS Palestinian Territories PT Portugal PW Palau PY Paraguay QA Qatar RE Réunion RO Romania RS Serbia RU Russia RW Rwanda SA Saudi Arabia SB Solomon Islands SC Seychelles SD Sudan SE Sweden SG Singapore SH St. Helena, Ascension & Tristan da Cunha SI Slovenia SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen SK Slovakia SL Sierra Leone SM San Marino SN Senegal SO Somalia SR Suriname SS South Sudan ST São Tomé & Príncipe SV El Salvador SX Sint Maarten SY Syria SZ Eswatini TA Tristan da Cunha TC Turks & Caicos Islands TD Chad TF French Southern and Antarctic Lands TG Togo TH Thailand TJ Tajikistan TK Tokelau TL Timor-Leste TM Turkmenistan TN Tunisia TO Tonga TR Türkiye TT Trinidad & Tobago TV Tuvalu TW Taiwan TZ Tanzania UA Ukraine UG Uganda UM U.S. Outlying Islands UN United Nations US United States UY Uruguay UZ Uzbekistan VA Vatican City VC St. Vincent & Grenadines VE Venezuela VG British Virgin Islands VI U.S. Virgin Islands VN Vietnam VU Vanuatu WF Wallis & Futuna WS Samoa XK Kosovo YE Yemen YT Mayotte ZA South Africa ZM Zambia ZW Zimbabwe

Some providers may internally have assigned specific codes to deprecated sequences or to unofficial ones, just like WhatsApp did by putting the Texas flag as XT ().

+ deprecated replacement flag code region flag code region possible rendering AN Netherlands Antilles CW Curaçao SX Sint Maarten BQ Caribbean Netherlands BU Burma MM Myanmar (Burma) CS Serbia and Montenegro RS Serbia ME Montenegro DD German Democratic Republic DE Germany FX Metropolitan France FR France NT Neutral Zone SA Saudi Arabia IQ Iraq QU European Union EU European Union SU Union of Soviet Socialist Republics RU Russia AM Armenia AZ Azerbaijan BY Belarus EE Estonia GE Georgia KZ Kazakhstan KG Kyrgyzstan LV Latvia LT Lithuania MD Moldova TJ Tajikistan TM Turkmenistan UA Ukraine UZ Uzbekistan TP East Timor TL Timor-Leste YD Democratic Yemen YE Yemen YU Yugoslavia RS Serbia ME Montenegro ZR Zaire CD Congo-Kinshasa

A separate mechanism (emoji tag sequences) is used for regional flags, such as England , Scotland , Wales , Texas or California . It uses and formatting tag characters instead of regional indicator symbols. It is based on ISO 3166-2 regions with hyphen removed and lowercase, e.g. GB-ENG → gbeng, terminating with . Flag of England is therefore represented by a sequence U+1F3F4, U+E0067, U+E0062, U+E0065, U+E006E, U+E0067, U+E007F. In the tenth revision the Unicode consortium was considering instead, but from eleventh onwards it is black. Some vendors choose to include custom zero-width joiner sequences that only show up on their platform, such as WhatsApp and their Refugee Nation Flag 🏳️‍🟧‍⬛️‍🟧.

Unicode block

Background In 2007 a draft proposal was presented to the Unicode Technical Committee to encode emoji symbols, specifically those in widespread use on mobile phones by Japanese telecommunications companies DoCoMo, KDDI, and SoftBank. The two most famous proposed emoji flag symbols included Japan (🇯🇵) and the United States (🇺🇸). However, neither Australia (🇦🇺) nor Canada (🇨🇦), both of which are among other most famous flags, was among other emoji flag symbols that were proposed. The proposed symbols included eight other national flags: China (🇨🇳), Germany (🇩🇪), Spain (🇪🇸), France (🇫🇷), the UK (🇬🇧), Italy (🇮🇹), South Korea (🇰🇷) and Russia (🇷🇺). Encoding these flags but not other countries' flags was considered, by some, as prejudicial. One rejected solution was to encode the ten flags but call them "EMOJI COMPATIBILITY SYMBOL-n" and represent them visually in the Standard as "EC n" instead of showing the flags they represent. Another rejected solution would have allocated 676 codepoints (26×26) for each possible two letter combination of A–Z. They would represent political entities based on ISO 3166 such as "JP" for Japan, "US" for the United States and "EU" for the European Union or Internet ccTLDs (country code top-level domains).

The accepted solution was to add 26 characters for letters used for the representation of regional indicators, which used in pairs would represent the ten national flags and possible future extensions. Per the Unicode Standard specifically two of the most famous national flags like 🇯🇵 and 🇺🇸, as well as eight other national flags like 🇨🇳, 🇩🇪, 🇪🇸, 🇫🇷, 🇬🇧, 🇮🇹, 🇰🇷 and 🇷🇺.

See also Flag icons for languages

References

Further reading