Which country's flag has 50 white stars on a blue canton?

Which country's flag has 50 white stars on a blue canton? The answer is the United States. Its flag combines a blue rectangle, called the canton, with 50 white five-pointed stars and 13 alternating red and white stripes.

The stars represent the 50 states of the Union, while the 13 stripes commemorate the original colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. The current 50-star design was adopted on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii became the 50th state.

The flag developed over time rather than being created in one single final form. Congress adopted the first national flag design in 1777, with 13 stars and stripes. New stars were added as states joined the country, while the number of stripes was fixed at 13 in 1818.

A common mix-up is confusing the canton with the entire blue field: the canton is specifically the upper corner nearest the flagpole. The United Kingdom's Union Jack also uses a canton, but it has no stars, and Australia's flag has fewer stars plus the Union Jack.