Landlocked Countries: The Complete List, and the Two That Are Double-Landlocked
· 5 min read
How many landlocked countries are there?
There are 44 landlocked countries in the world: sovereign states with no coastline on an ocean or on a sea connected to one. That figure counts the 193 UN members plus the Holy See and Palestine, and treats the Caspian Sea as a lake, which is why Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are all counted as landlocked despite having Caspian shorelines.
Roughly one country in five is landlocked, and about 7% of the world's population lives in one.
Which continent has the most landlocked countries?
Africa has the most, with 16, followed closely by Europe. Asia has 12 and South America has 2. North America, Oceania and the Caribbean have none at all.
| Region | Count | Countries |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 16 | Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Europe | 14 | Andorra, Austria, Belarus, Czechia, Hungary, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, North Macedonia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, Vatican City |
| Asia | 12 | Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan |
| South America | 2 | Bolivia, Paraguay |
Ethiopia is the most populous landlocked country, with over 120 million people. It became landlocked in 1993 when Eritrea gained independence and took the Red Sea coast with it.
Kazakhstan is by far the largest landlocked country by area, at about 2.7 million km² — bigger than all of Western Europe.
What is a double-landlocked country?
A double-landlocked country is one surrounded entirely by other landlocked countries, so you must cross at least two international borders to reach the sea. There are exactly two: Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
Liechtenstein sits between Switzerland and Austria, both landlocked. Uzbekistan borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, all landlocked — with the Caspian counted as a lake.
Uzbekistan's status is recent. Before the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 it bordered the USSR, which had coastline. Liechtenstein's is older but not ancient: it became double-landlocked in 1918, when Austria-Hungary broke up and Austria lost its Adriatic ports.
Does being landlocked hurt a country economically?
Being landlocked is associated with measurably lower economic output, and the United Nations maintains a formal category for it. Of the 32 countries the UN classifies as Landlocked Developing Countries, many rank among the poorest in the world.
The mechanism is transport cost and dependency. Landlocked states pay more to move goods, and they rely on a neighbour's roads, railways, ports and goodwill to trade at all. A border dispute or a political falling-out can sever a country's access to world markets without a shot being fired.
The exceptions are instructive. Switzerland, Austria and Luxembourg are among the wealthiest countries on earth. Being landlocked is a constraint, not a sentence, and it matters far less when your neighbours are rich, stable and open.
Bolivia is the clearest example of the political side. It lost its Pacific coastline to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884) and has pursued the question ever since. It still maintains a navy on Lake Titicaca and marks the loss annually as the Día del Mar.
Learn where they are
Landlocked countries are disproportionately the ones people cannot place, because they lack the coastline cue that makes a shape memorable. Central Asia and central Africa are worth deliberate practice.
Try the Asia locate quiz for the Central Asian group, or Africa for the Sahel belt.
Put it into practice: try the world locate quiz or the flags quiz.