The current flag of the United States displays 50 white stars.
Each star represents one U.S. state. The stars sit on a blue canton, the rectangular section in the flag’s upper-left corner. Unlike the thirteen stripes, which remain fixed, the number of stars has changed as states entered the Union.
The 50-star design became official on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state. Alaska had joined the Union the previous year, prompting a 49-star design before Hawaii’s admission produced the present version.
The stars are arranged in nine offset rows: five rows contain six stars and four rows contain five. A common mistake is to assume the stars represent the original colonies; that meaning belongs to the thirteen stripes. The flag thus records both the nation’s founding through its stripes and its current federal membership through its stars.