Flag of Florida

The flag of Florida is the official flag of the U.S. state of Florida. The flag consists of a red saltire on a white background, with the state seal superimposed on the center. The current state flag was adopted on November 6, 1900, and has only been changed once on May 21, 1985 when the state seal was standardized.

It is one of three U.S. state flags to feature the words "In God We Trust" (the U.S. motto since 1956), with the other two being those of Georgia and Mississippi.

The Florida state flag is defined by law as:

The seal of the state, in diameter one-half the hoist, shall occupy the center of a white ground. Red bars, in width one-fifth the hoist, shall extend from each corner toward the center, to the outer rim of the seal.

The state seal of Florida, as described in the 2024 Florida Statutes, Title IV, Chapter 15, § 15.03, contains:

The current rendition of the seal was adopted on May 21, 1985, by Governor Bob Graham and the Cabinet following a revision commissioned by Secretary of State George Firestone. The revision, executed by Museum of Florida History artist John Locastro, corrected inconsistencies that had persisted since 1868, including a misidentified cocoa palm, a Plains-style Indian maiden, unrealistic mountains, and a steamboat of questionable seaworthiness. Visually, the steamboat or steamship resembles side-wheel steamers of the 1800s, such as the Walk-in-the-Water (1818), the SS California (1848) or the CSS Oregon (1846).

Spain was a dynastic union and federation of kingdoms when Juan Ponce de León claimed Florida for the Spanish Crown on April 2, 1513. Colonial authorities used several banners or standards during the first period of settlement and governance in Florida, such as the royal standard of the Crown of Castile. As with other Spanish territories, the Burgundian saltire was generally used in Florida to represent collective Spanish sovereignty between 1565 and 1763. The red saltire of the Cross of Burgundy represents the cross on which St. Andrew was crucified, and the standard is frequently displayed today in Florida's historic Spanish settlements, such as St. Augustine.

In 1763, Spain passed control of Florida to Great Britain via the Treaty of Paris, following the latter's victory over France in the Seven Years' War, in exchange for other territory. Great Britain used the original union flag with the white diagonal stripes in Florida during this brief period. The British also divided the Florida territory into East Florida, with its capital at St. Augustine, and West Florida, with its capital at Pensacola. The border was the Apalachicola River.