Introduction
The flag of the Pitcairn Islands is a British Blue Ensign with the territory arms in the fly: a green shield with a yellow anchor and a Bible, beneath a crest showing a Pitcairn wheelbarrow and a flowering slip of miro.
Meaning & Symbolism
The anchor and the Bible came off HMS Bounty. They are the actual objects the mutineers brought ashore in 1790, and the Bible in question is still on the island.
The wheelbarrow in the crest is there because a wheelbarrow is a serious possession on an island with no roads to speak of, and the miro is the wood the islanders carve for a living.
History of the Pitcairn Islands Flag
The arms were granted on 4 November 1969 and the flag adopted on 2 April 1984.
Pitcairn has the smallest population of any territory in the world, around fifty people, nearly all descended from the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions who landed in 1790.
Curiosities
- The anchor and the Bible on the shield are real objects from HMS Bounty, brought ashore in 1790.
- Pitcairn has the smallest population of any territory on earth, around fifty people.
- Almost every islander descends from the Bounty mutineers and their Tahitian companions.
- The wheelbarrow in the crest is on the arms because on Pitcairn it genuinely matters.
- Pitcairn issues postage stamps, which have long been one of its main sources of income.
Download Flag
Download the flag of Pitcairn Islands in high-quality SVG vector format or PNG raster images. SVG files can be scaled to any size without losing quality.
Digital icon artwork; its proportions may differ from the official flag proportions listed on this page.