page_title: Flag of convenience
section_title: Extent of use
hierarchical_section_title: Flag of convenience / Extent of use
caption_attribution_description: Flags of convenience countries and territories (marked in blue), as listed by the w:International Transport Workers' Federation on [1]
context_page_description: Flag of convenience is a business practice whereby a ship's owners register a merchant ship in a ship register of a country other than that of the ship's owners, and the ship flies the civil ensign of that country, called the flag state. The term is often used pejoratively, and although common, the practice is sometimes regarded as contentious. Each merchant ship is required by international law to be registered in a registry created by a country, and a ship is subject to the laws of that country, which are used also if the ship is involved in a case under admiralty law. A ship's owners may elect to register a ship in a foreign country which enables it to avoid the regulations of the owners’ country which may, for example, have stricter safety standards. They may also select a jurisdiction to reduce operating costs, avoiding higher taxes in the owners’ country and bypassing laws that protect the wages and working conditions of mariners. The term "flag of convenience" has been used since the 1950s. A registry which does not have a nationality or residency requirement for ship registration is often described as an open registry.
context_section_description: The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) maintains a list of registries it considers to be flags of convenience (FOC) registries. In developing the list, the ITF considers "ability and willingness of the flag state to enforce international minimum social standards on its vessels," the "degree of ratification and enforcement of ILO Conventions and Recommendations," and "safety and environmental record". As of 2019, the list includes 35 countries.
  As of 2009, Panama, Liberia and the Marshall Islands are the world's three largest registries in terms of deadweight tonnage (DWT). These three organizations registered 11,636 ships of 1,000 DWT and above, for a total of 468,405,000 DWT: more than 39% of the world's shipborne carrying capacity. Panama dominates the scene with over 8,065 ships accounting for almost 23% of the world's DWT. Of the three, the Marshall Islands (with 1,265 registered ships) had the greatest rate of DWT increase in 2009, increasing its tonnage by almost 15%.
  The Bahamian flag ranks sixth worldwide, behind the Hong Kong and Greek registries, but is similar in size to the Marshallese flag of convenience, with about 200 more ships but a carrying capacity about 6,000,000 DWT lower. Malta, at the ninth position worldwide, had about 100 more ships than the Bahamas, with a capacity of 50,666,000 DWT, representing 4% of the world fleet with 12% growth that year.
  At the eleventh position, Cyprus registered 1,016 ships in 2009, 2.6% of world tonnage. The remaining top 11 flags of convenience are Antigua and Barbuda (#20), Bermuda (#22), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (#26), and the French International Ship Register (FIS) at number No. 27. Bermuda and the FIS have fewer than 200 ships apiece, but they are large: the average Bermudan ship is 67,310 DWT and the average FIS ship is at 42,524 DWT. (By way of reference, the average capacity of ships in the U.S. and U.K. registers is 1,851 DWT and 9,517 DWT respectively.) The registries of Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines both have over 1,000 ships with average capacity of 10,423 DWT and 7,334 DWT respectively.
  The remaining flags of convenience listed by the ITF each account for less than 1% of the world's DWT. As of 2008, more than half of the world's merchant ships (measured by tonnage) are registered under flags of convenience.
caption: Countries listed as having a flag of convenience by the International Transport Workers' Federation
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