The modern flag of the United States has 13 horizontal stripes.
The stripes alternate red and white and represent the Thirteen Colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. Their number has remained fixed even as the nation expanded from its original colonial union to fifty states.
The stars have a different meaning and history. They represent the states, so their number changed as new states entered the Union. The current flag has fifty stars, while the stripes continue to preserve a visual link to the founding era commemorated by America250.
Congress established the thirteen-stripe and thirteen-star concept in its Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777. The resolution did not prescribe the precise arrangement of the stars, which led to many early variations. The enduring stripe pattern is therefore older than the modern fifty-star flag.