Landlocked Country Facts

Around 44 UN member states have no coastline. The full list, with the two double-landlocked ones flagged, is on our landlocked countries reference page. Here are the facts worth knowing.

The double-landlocked two

A double-landlocked country is one where every neighbour is also landlocked, so you must cross at least two international borders to reach the sea. There are exactly two in the world: Liechtenstein, surrounded by Austria and Switzerland (both landlocked), and Uzbekistan, surrounded by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan (all landlocked). Uzbekistan became double-landlocked only in 1991 — before the Soviet Union broke up, it was part of a country with a long coastline.

The extremes

• Largest landlocked country: Kazakhstan, at about 2.7 million km² — larger than all of Western Europe combined, and the ninth-largest country in the world.
• Most populous landlocked country: Ethiopia, with well over 100 million people. It lost its coastline in 1993 when Eritrea became independent.
• Smallest landlocked country: Vatican City (0.49 km²), followed by San Marino (61 km²) and Liechtenstein (160 km²).
• Highest landlocked capital: La Paz, Bolivia, at about 3,600 m.
• Most landlocked countries on one continent: Africa, with 16.

Landlocked navies

Bolivia maintains a naval force of several thousand personnel despite having lost its entire Pacific coastline to Chile in the 1879–83 War of the Pacific. The Bolivian Navy patrols Lake Titicaca and the country's navigable rivers, and its existence is a standing political statement — Bolivia marks an annual Day of the Sea and has never dropped its claim. Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Rwanda, Uganda and several other landlocked states also operate river or lake flotillas.

Why it matters economically

Landlocked developing countries face systematically higher trade costs, because their imports and exports must pass through a neighbour's ports, roads and customs. A political dispute with a coastal neighbour can strangle a landlocked economy. The United Nations recognises a formal group of 32 Landlocked Developing Countries and negotiates transit-rights agreements on their behalf. Landlocked wealthy countries — Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein — avoid the penalty through excellent rail and road links and deep integration with neighbours.

Regions with few or none

North America has no landlocked country at all. South America has only two: Bolivia and Paraguay. Oceania has none (every country there is an island or Australia). By contrast, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the interior of Africa are full of them — a legacy of borders drawn without regard to sea access.