Landlocked Countries: The Complete List
45 countries have no coastline on any ocean. Search them, sort them by population, area or number of neighbours, and open a full guide for any one of them. Every figure here is computed from the same 250-entry dataset the rest of the site runs on.
- 45
- Landlocked countries
- 2
- Doubly landlocked
- 4
- Continents involved
- 8.0%
- Of world population
Pick a random landlocked country
Draws from whatever the search box and continent filter are showing right now, and never repeats a country until the whole pool has been used.
Showing 45 of 45 landlocked countries and territories.
- Asia
Afghanistan
Kabul
- Population
- 42,647,492
- Area
- 652,230 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
Borders Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China.
Afghanistan country guide - Europe
Andorra
Andorra la Vella
- Population
- 81,938
- Area
- 468 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
Borders France and Spain.
Andorra country guide - Asia
Armenia
Yerevan
- Population
- 3,033,500
- Area
- 29,743 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Türkiye.
Armenia country guide - Europe
Austria
Vienna
- Population
- 9,177,982
- Area
- 83,871 km²
- Land borders
- 8 borders
Ties for the most land neighbours in Europe and routes freight to Adriatic ports. Borders Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.
Austria country guide - Asia
Azerbaijan
Baku
- Population
- 10,202,830
- Area
- 86,600 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Borders Armenia, Georgia, Iran, Russia and Türkiye.
Azerbaijan country guide - Europe
Belarus
Minsk
- Population
- 9,132,629
- Area
- 207,600 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Borders Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
Belarus country guide - Asia
Bhutan
Thimphu
- Population
- 791,524
- Area
- 38,394 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
Measures progress by Gross National Happiness rather than GDP alone. Borders China and India.
Bhutan country guide - Americas
Bolivia
Sucre
- Population
- 12,413,315
- Area
- 1,098,581 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Lost its coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific and still keeps a lake navy. Borders Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Peru.
Bolivia country guide - Africa
Botswana
Gaborone
- Population
- 2,521,139
- Area
- 582,000 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Turned diamond revenue and steady institutions into decades of growth. Borders Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Botswana country guide - Africa
Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou
- Population
- 23,548,781
- Area
- 272,967 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
Borders Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Togo.
Burkina Faso country guide - Africa
Burundi
Gitega
- Population
- 14,047,786
- Area
- 27,834 km²
- Land borders
- 3 borders
Borders DR Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Burundi country guide - Africa
Central African Republic
Bangui
- Population
- 5,330,690
- Area
- 622,984 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
Borders Cameroon, Chad, DR Congo, Congo, South Sudan and Sudan.
Central African Republic country guide - Africa
Chad
N'Djamena
- Population
- 20,299,123
- Area
- 1,284,000 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
Watched Lake Chad shrink dramatically while sitting 1,500 km from open water. Borders Cameroon, Central African Republic, Libya, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan.
Chad country guide - Europe
Czechia
Prague
- Population
- 10,905,028
- Area
- 78,865 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Austria, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.
Czechia country guide - Africa
Eswatini
Lobamba
- Population
- 1,242,822
- Area
- 17,364 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
Borders Mozambique and South Africa.
Eswatini country guide - Africa
Ethiopia
Addis Ababa
- Population
- 132,059,767
- Area
- 1,104,300 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
The most populous landlocked country, and the seat of the African Union. Borders Djibouti, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
Ethiopia country guide - Europe
Hungary
Budapest
- Population
- 9,562,065
- Area
- 93,028 km²
- Land borders
- 7 borders
Borders Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
Hungary country guide - Asia
Kazakhstan
Astana
- Population
- 20,592,571
- Area
- 2,724,900 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
The largest landlocked country on Earth, larger than all of Western Europe. Borders China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Kazakhstan country guide - Europe
Kosovo
Pristina
- Population
- 1,760,000
- Area
- 10,908 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.
Kosovo country guide - Asia
Kyrgyzstan
Bishkek
- Population
- 7,221,868
- Area
- 199,951 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Kyrgyzstan country guide - Asia
Laos
Vientiane
- Population
- 7,769,819
- Area
- 236,800 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
The only landlocked country in South-East Asia, banking on rail and hydropower. Borders Myanmar, Cambodia, China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Laos country guide - Africa
Lesotho
Maseru
- Population
- 2,337,423
- Area
- 30,355 km²
- Land borders
- 1 border
Completely surrounded by South Africa, with the highest low point of any country. Borders South Africa.
Lesotho country guide - Europe
Liechtenstein
Vaduz
- Population
- 40,450
- Area
- 160 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
The other doubly landlocked state, wedged between Switzerland and Austria. Borders Austria and Switzerland.
Liechtenstein country guide - Europe
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
- Population
- 677,012
- Area
- 2,586 km²
- Land borders
- 3 borders
Borders Belgium, France and Germany.
Luxembourg country guide - Africa
Malawi
Lilongwe
- Population
- 21,655,286
- Area
- 118,484 km²
- Land borders
- 3 borders
Borders Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia.
Malawi country guide - Africa
Mali
Bamako
- Population
- 24,478,595
- Area
- 1,240,192 km²
- Land borders
- 7 borders
Borders Algeria, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal.
Mali country guide - Europe
Moldova
Chișinău
- Population
- 2,402,306
- Area
- 33,846 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
Borders Romania and Ukraine.
Moldova country guide - Asia
Mongolia
Ulan Bator
- Population
- 3,524,788
- Area
- 1,564,110 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
The most thinly populated country in the dataset, between Russia and China. Borders China and Russia.
Mongolia country guide - Asia
Nepal
Kathmandu
- Population
- 29,651,054
- Area
- 147,181 km²
- Land borders
- 2 borders
Holds eight of the ten highest mountains, including Everest on the Chinese border. Borders China and India.
Nepal country guide - Africa
Niger
Niamey
- Population
- 27,032,412
- Area
- 1,267,000 km²
- Land borders
- 7 borders
Borders Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Libya, Mali and Nigeria.
Niger country guide - Europe
North Macedonia
Skopje
- Population
- 1,824,359
- Area
- 25,713 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Borders Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo and Serbia.
North Macedonia country guide - Americas
Paraguay
Asunción
- Population
- 6,929,153
- Area
- 406,752 km²
- Land borders
- 3 borders
Moves most of its soy and beef exports down the Paraguay–Paraná river system. Borders Argentina, Bolivia and Brazil.
Paraguay country guide - Africa
Rwanda
Kigali
- Population
- 14,256,567
- Area
- 26,338 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Burundi, DR Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.
Rwanda country guide - Europe
San Marino
City of San Marino
- Population
- 33,977
- Area
- 61 km²
- Land borders
- 1 border
Claims to be the oldest surviving republic, entirely enclosed by Italy. Borders Italy.
San Marino country guide - Europe
Serbia
Belgrade
- Population
- 6,586,476
- Area
- 88,361 km²
- Land borders
- 8 borders
Borders Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Romania.
Serbia country guide - Europe
Slovakia
Bratislava
- Population
- 5,422,069
- Area
- 49,037 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Borders Austria, Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Ukraine.
Slovakia country guide - Africa
South Sudan
Juba
- Population
- 11,943,408
- Area
- 619,745 km²
- Land borders
- 6 borders
Borders Central African Republic, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda.
South Sudan country guide - Europe
Switzerland
Bern
- Population
- 9,005,582
- Area
- 41,284 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Proof that landlocked is not a life sentence: high-value exports fly, not float. Borders Austria, France, Italy, Liechtenstein and Germany.
Switzerland country guide - Asia
Tajikistan
Dushanbe
- Population
- 10,590,927
- Area
- 143,100 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
Tajikistan country guide - Asia
Turkmenistan
Ashgabat
- Population
- 7,494,498
- Area
- 488,100 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Turkmenistan country guide - Africa
Uganda
Kampala
- Population
- 50,015,092
- Area
- 241,550 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
Borders DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania.
Uganda country guide - Asia
Uzbekistan
Tashkent
- Population
- 36,361,859
- Area
- 447,400 km²
- Land borders
- 5 borders
One of only two doubly landlocked states: every neighbour is landlocked too. Borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Uzbekistan country guide - Europe
Vatican City
Vatican City
- Population
- 800
- Area
- 0.44 km²
- Land borders
- 1 border
The smallest entry in the dataset by both area and population. Borders Italy.
Vatican City country guide - Africa
Zambia
Lusaka
- Population
- 21,314,956
- Area
- 752,612 km²
- Land borders
- 8 borders
Ties for the most land neighbours of any landlocked country in the dataset. Borders Angola, Botswana, DR Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Zambia country guide - Africa
Zimbabwe
Harare
- Population
- 16,634,373
- Area
- 390,757 km²
- Land borders
- 4 borders
Borders Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia.
Zimbabwe country guide
Every figure is computed from the site’s country dataset. Nothing you type is uploaded or stored.
What landlocked means, and who this list is for
A landlocked country has no coastline on an ocean, or on any sea that connects to one. That last clause does more work than people expect. The Caspian is the largest body of water on the planet with no natural outlet to the sea, so Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan both sit on a shoreline and are still counted as landlocked, because a ship cannot sail from there to open water. Lakes and rivers do not change the classification either, which is why Bolivia can keep a navy on Lake Titicaca and remain the textbook example of a country cut off from the sea.
The practical definition is simpler than the geographic one. If you want to put a container on a ship, you have to move it across somebody else’s border first. That single sentence explains almost everything else on this page: the transit treaties, the trade costs, the border delays, the political friction with neighbours, and the reason 2 countries in particular have it twice as hard.
This page exists because most lists of landlocked countries are a bare bulleted list with no figures and no way to sort them. Here every row carries the capital, population, land area and the exact number of land neighbours, all pulled from the dataset rather than typed in, and the whole table can be filtered by continent or searched by name. Students use it for homework, quiz writers use it for rounds, traders and logistics students use it to see the transit problem laid out in numbers, and a fair number of people arrive just wanting to settle an argument about whether Kazakhstan counts.
How to use the list
Four controls. None of them need explaining twice.
- Step 1
Search or filter
Type a country, a capital or a continent. The list narrows as you type, so you can go from 45 rows to one in a couple of keystrokes.
- Step 2
Sort by what you care about
A to Z for reference, most people for scale, largest area for size, most borders for the transit problem. The sort applies to whatever the filter is showing.
- Step 3
Spin for a random one
The spin button draws from the filtered pool and works through it without repeats, so ten presses give ten different countries rather than the same one twice.
- Step 4
Open the full country guide
Every card links to a country page with flag, capital, currency, languages, area, population and the complete neighbour list.
What makes this list different
Figures, not just names
Most lists stop at the country name. Every row here carries the capital, the population, the land area and the exact number of land neighbours, so you can see at a glance that Kazakhstan and Vatican City are both on the same list.
Computed, never typed
All 45 rows and every number in the prose come from the same 250-entry dataset at build time. There is no hand-maintained copy to fall out of date, and no figure here that contradicts the country pages.
The transit problem, visible
Sort by most borders and the geography of being landlocked shows up immediately: these countries average 4.4 land neighbours against 2.2 for countries with a coast, and 33 of them border another landlocked state.
Where the 45 landlocked countries are
Landlocked countries are not scattered evenly. They cluster where mountain ranges, deserts and old imperial borders pushed states inland, which in practice means the middle of three continents. Africa has 16, Europe has 15, Asia has 12, and Americas has 2. Oceania and the Antarctic have none at all, for the obvious reason that an island cannot be landlocked. The dataset groups North and South America together as the Americas, and both of that region’s landlocked countries — Bolivia and Paraguay — sit in South America. North and Central America have none.
Zoom in one level and the pattern sharpens. Eastern Africa holds the biggest single cluster anywhere, with 7 of its 20 entries cut off from the sea. But the striking case is Central Asia: it is the only subregion in the dataset where every single country is landlocked, all 5of them. That is why the region’s trade politics are dominated by rail corridors and pipeline routes rather than ports, and why one of the world’s only two doubly landlocked states sits inside it.
Africa
16388,718,220 people
Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Europe
1566,612,673 people
Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Czechia, Hungary, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Vatican City
Asia
12179,882,730 people
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Americas
219,342,468 people
Bolivia, Paraguay
Why this page says 45 and your textbook says 44
The dataset behind this site holds 250 entries, covering sovereign states and dependent territories, and 45 of them carry the landlocked flag. The number quoted almost everywhere else is 44. The gap is a single country: Kosovo. It declared independence in 2008, is recognised by roughly half the world’s states, and is not a United Nations member, so most reference lists leave it out of the count while still printing it on the map. No dependent territory in the dataset is landlocked, so there is no hidden inflation from territories either — the 45 here are all states in their own right. Browse all 250 countries and territories if you want to see the full set the figure is drawn from.
The records: biggest, smallest, most crowded, most hemmed in
The range inside this list is wider than most people picture. One entry is bigger than Western Europe; another would fit inside a large city park. Every figure below is read straight from the dataset and links to the full country guide.
| Record | Country | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Largest by land area | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan | 2,724,900 km² |
| Second largest | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | 1,564,110 km² |
| Smallest by land area | 🇻🇦 Vatican City | 0.44 km² |
| Most people | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | 132,059,767 |
| Second most people | 🇺🇬 Uganda | 50,015,092 |
| Fewest people | 🇻🇦 Vatican City | 800 |
| Most land neighbours | 🇦🇹 Austria | 8 neighbours (tied with Serbia and Zambia) |
The 2 doubly landlocked states
A doubly landlocked country is one where every neighbour is landlocked too, so cargo crosses at least two international borders before it reaches a port. There are exactly 2 in the world, and the dataset confirms it rather than being told: Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
- 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein
Neighbours: Austria and Switzerland. Every one of them is landlocked as well.
- 🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
Neighbours: Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. Every one of them is landlocked as well.
The 3 countries with a single neighbour
Sort the list by borders and look at the bottom. 3 countries share a land border with exactly one state, which means one government controls every road, railway and power line in or out. Geographers call these enclaved countries.
- 🇱🇸 Lesotho
Entirely surrounded by South Africa. 2,337,423 people, 30,355 km².
- 🇸🇲 San Marino
Entirely surrounded by Italy. 33,977 people, 61 km².
- 🇻🇦 Vatican City
Entirely surrounded by Italy. 800 people, 0.44 km².
Add the whole group together and it stops looking marginal: 654,556,091 people live in landlocked countries, about 8.0% of the world total, spread over 17,578,112 km² of land, or 11.7% of the land area in the dataset. That is 18% of the entries on the map carrying a structural trade disadvantage that has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with where the borders fell.
Why being landlocked costs money
Around 80% of world trade by volume moves on ships, and a ship needs a port. If your country has no port, every tonne you export or import has to be handed to somebody else’s road, railway and customs service first. The extra distance is the smallest part of the bill. The expensive parts are the transfer between transport modes, the paperwork at each frontier, and the waiting: a truck idling at a border post is capital doing nothing, and insurance and spoilage keep running the whole time.
The result shows up in freight rates. The United Nations group of landlocked developing countries has spent two decades documenting the same pattern: its members pay substantially more to move a standard container than their coastal neighbours pay for the same journey, and the border delay is often the larger half of the penalty. For a country exporting cut flowers or fresh produce, a two-day customs queue is not a cost, it is a total loss.
The second cost is political. A landlocked country’s trade route runs through a neighbour, which means the neighbour’s strikes, currency, road maintenance budget and foreign policy all become your problem. Nepal has felt this whenever the Indian border slowed down. Bolivia has spent more than a century arguing about the coastline it lost to Chile in the War of the Pacific, took the case to the International Court of Justice, still maintains a navy on Lake Titicaca, and marks a national Day of the Sea every March. Uganda and Rwanda have watched the cost of a container from Mombasa move with events in Kenya that they have no vote in.
International law offers a partial answer. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea grants landlocked states the right of access to and from the sea and freedom of transit across their neighbours’ territory, and it lets them register ships and fly a maritime flag. Rights on paper still need plumbing, so the real work happens in bilateral transit agreements, dry ports, one-stop border posts and corridor authorities: the Northern Corridor from Mombasa, the Walvis Bay routes across southern Africa, the Trans-Caspian route out of Central Asia, the Laos-China railway that turned a country with no coast into a link in someone else’s supply chain.
None of which makes being landlocked a sentence. Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg are among the wealthiest states on the planet, and Botswana built decades of growth on diamonds and steady institutions. The pattern behind the successes is consistent. Sell things where freight is a small share of the price: watches, pharmaceuticals, financial services, software, precision machinery, tourism. Keep the borders you do have friendly and open. Invest in the rail and road links you control. Being far from a port hurts most when your exports are heavy, cheap and perishable, and it barely registers when your exports weigh nothing at all.
Six ways people use this page
Geography homework
The classic assignment is a list of landlocked countries by continent with capitals and populations. Filter by continent, sort A to Z, and the table is already in the shape the worksheet wants.
Trade and logistics study
Sorting by number of neighbours turns an abstract lecture on transit dependence into something you can point at, and the enclaved countries show the extreme case in one line.
Understanding supply chains
If you work in freight, the landlocked list is a map of where the paperwork lives. Every country here hands its cargo to a neighbour before it ever sees a crane.
Trip planning
Landlocked does not mean hard to reach, but it does change how you get there. Use the random pick to find a country you had not considered, then open its guide for languages and currency.
Chasing high places
Landlocked and mountainous overlap heavily, from Nepal and Bhutan to Switzerland, Tajikistan and Lesotho. Sort by area and read the list as a shortlist for altitude.
Quiz and trivia rounds
Doubly landlocked, enclaved, largest, smallest, most neighbours: this page holds five ready-made quiz questions with verified answers, and a random picker for a tie-break.
Why use this list rather than another one
Like-for-like figures
One dataset for every row, so populations and areas are comparable. Lists stitched together from different sources are not.
Sortable and filterable
Continent tabs, a search box and four sort orders. A static bullet list cannot answer 'which is the fifth biggest'.
Works on any device
Static HTML, no login, no app. It loads on a phone in a lesson and on a classroom projector alike.
Nothing is collected
The search box runs in your browser. Nothing you type is uploaded, and there is no account to make.
The honest reason to prefer a computed list is that hand-typed geography ages badly. Populations move every year, South Sudan only appeared in 2011, Eswatini changed its name in 2018, and half the lists still online quote figures from a decade ago with no indication of the vintage. Because this page derives every number from the dataset at build time, the worst that can happen is that the dataset itself is out of date, and when it updates the prose updates with it.
The second reason is that the interesting questions about landlocked countries are comparative. Which of them has the most neighbours to negotiate with? How much of the world’s population is affected? Is the average landlocked country small, or does that just feel true because Europe’s examples are tiny? A sortable table answers those in a click, and the answer to the last one is no: the median entry on this list covers 143,100 km², which is a perfectly ordinary size for a country.
Keep exploring
All 250 Countries
Browse every country and territory in the dataset, with flags, capitals and full guides.
Continents & Regions
See how the world splits by region, and which regions the landlocked countries sit in.
Random Country Generator
Draw any country at random and get its flag, capital and key facts instantly.
Capital City Quiz
Test whether you can name the capitals you just read, including the awkward ones.
Guess the Flag
Landlocked flags are some of the hardest to place. Find out how many you know.
Spin the Globe
One spin, one country, one full guide. The original tool the rest of the site grew from.
Frequently asked questions
How many landlocked countries are there?
This page lists 45. The figure you will usually see quoted is 44, and the difference is Kosovo: it declared independence in 2008, is recognised by roughly half the world's states and is not a United Nations member, so most reference lists leave it out. Count it and you get 45; leave it out and you get 44. Both numbers are defensible as long as you say which rule you used.
What does landlocked actually mean?
A landlocked country is a sovereign state with no coastline on an ocean or on a sea that connects to one. Rivers, lakes and inland seas do not count. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan sit on the Caspian, which is the largest lake on the planet and has no natural outlet to the ocean, so both are still landlocked. Every container leaving a landlocked country by sea has to cross at least one foreign border first.
Which is the largest landlocked country?
Kazakhstan, at 2,724,900 km² in this dataset. It is more than 1.7 times the size of Mongolia, the runner-up, and it would rank among the ten biggest countries in the world even if it had a coast. Its Caspian shoreline does not change the classification, because the Caspian is a closed basin.
Which landlocked country has the most people?
Ethiopia, with 132,059,767 people. Uganda is second at 50,015,092. Together the 45 landlocked entries hold 654,556,091 people, which is about 8.0% of the world total in the same dataset.
What are the two doubly landlocked countries?
Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan. A doubly landlocked country is one where every single neighbour is landlocked as well, so cargo has to cross at least two international borders before it can reach a port. Liechtenstein is surrounded by Austria and Switzerland. Uzbekistan is surrounded by Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Which continent has the most landlocked countries?
Africa, with 16. The full split is Africa 16, Europe 15, Asia 12, Americas 2. Oceania and the Antarctic have none, because every island state has a coast by definition.
Which landlocked country borders the most neighbours?
Austria, Serbia, Zambia tie on 8 land neighbours each. Landlocked countries average 4.4 neighbours in this dataset against 2.2 for countries with a coast, which is the whole geometry of the problem: no sea frontier means more land frontier.
Are there countries completely surrounded by one other country?
Yes, 3 of them: Lesotho, San Marino, Vatican City. Lesotho sits inside South Africa, and both San Marino and Vatican City sit inside Italy. Geographers call these enclaved countries, and they are the most extreme form of transit dependence there is, because a single neighbour controls every route in and out.
Is being landlocked bad for a country's economy?
It is a measurable handicap rather than a verdict. The UN's landlocked developing countries group reports that its members pay far more to move a container than their coastal neighbours, and that the delay at borders often costs more than the freight itself. But Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg are among the richest countries in the world, and Botswana grew for decades without a coast. What matters is whether the goods you sell need a ship at all, and whether your neighbours are stable trading partners or roadblocks.
Does the Caspian Sea count as sea access?
No. The Caspian is an endorheic basin: water flows in from the Volga and other rivers and leaves only by evaporation. Ships cannot sail from it to any ocean without going through the Volga-Don canal system, which is Russian inland waterway, so Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan are all still counted as landlocked. The same logic applies to the Dead Sea and to Lake Titicaca, where Bolivia keeps its navy.
How do landlocked countries trade at all?
Through transit corridors and treaty rights. The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea gives landlocked states a right of access to and from the sea, and bilateral transit agreements turn that principle into specific roads, railways, dry ports and customs procedures. Nepal moves most of its trade through Kolkata, Bolivia uses Chilean and Peruvian ports, Uganda and Rwanda depend on Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, and Central Asia increasingly uses rail through China and Iran.
Where do the numbers on this page come from?
Every figure is computed at build time from the same 250-entry country dataset used across the rest of Spin a Country, which covers sovereign states and dependent territories with population, land area, capital, region and land-border data. Nothing on this page is typed in by hand, so the list and the prose cannot drift apart. If a figure changes in the dataset, it changes here too.
Can I use this list for homework or a quiz?
Yes, and that is most of its traffic. The list is sortable by population, area and number of neighbours, so it works as a revision table as well as a reference. Every country name links to a full country guide with flag, capital, currency, languages and neighbours, which is usually the next thing a geography assignment asks for.
Is this page free to use?
Completely free, with no account and no limits. It runs as a static page, so nothing you type into the search box is sent anywhere. Advertising between the content sections is what keeps it free.
Still curious about a particular country? Every row in the list links to its own guide, or start from the full country index, the blog for longer geography reads, or send a correction if you spot a figure that looks wrong.