Most colours in a national flag

When considering only the flags of those countries that are members of the United Nations, the flag of South Africa, adopted on 27 April 1994, has more colours than those of any other countries, namely six, to symbolize unity: the red, white and blue colours were taken from the colours of the Boer Republics. The yellow, black and green are taken from the African National Congress (ANC).

Other non-UN member entities have flags with more colours: for example, there are a number of British dependent territories, such as Tristan da Cunha and Pitcairn Islands, which have a coat of arms on the British flag, and that increases the overall number of colours, even though the main part of the flag is simply red, white and blue.