The current Flag of the United States has 50 stars, one for each state.
The stars appear in a blue canton, or upper-left field, arranged in nine horizontal rows that alternate between six and five stars. The 13 red-and-white stripes represent the original thirteen colonies that declared independence from Great Britain.
The flag did not always have 50 stars. New stars were added as new states joined the Union, and the current design took effect on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the fiftieth state. Alaska had become the forty-ninth state in 1959.
A common mix-up is the Betsy Ross flag, an early design with 13 stars arranged in a circle. The modern flag's star count is tied to statehood, while its stripe count remains fixed at 13.