The United States flag has 13 stripes.
The stripes alternate red and white and represent the thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. The number has remained fixed even as the number of states increased from thirteen to fifty.
The Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777, specified thirteen alternating red and white stripes and thirteen white stars in a blue field. Later flag designs briefly added stripes when new states joined, but Congress restored the thirteen-stripe arrangement in 1818.
Today, the fifty stars and thirteen stripes carry different meanings. Stars reflect the current states, whereas stripes preserve the memory of the original colonies. That distinction makes the flag especially relevant to a 250th-anniversary celebration focused on the transition from colonies to an independent nation.