Alandlocked country is acountry that has no territory connected to anocean or whose coastlines lie solely onendorheic basins. Currently, there are 44 landlocked countries, two of themdoubly landlocked (Liechtenstein andUzbekistan), and three landlockedde facto states in the world.Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country,Kyrgyzstan is the furthest landlocked country from any ocean, whileEthiopia is the world's most populous landlocked country.^[1][2]

Generally, being landlocked creates political and economic disadvantages that having access tointernational waters would avoid. For this reason, nations large and small throughout history have fought to gain access to open waters, even at great expense in wealth, bloodshed, andpolitical capital.

The economic disadvantages of being landlocked can be alleviated or aggravated depending on degree of development, surroundingtrade routes andfreedom of trade, commonality of language, and other considerations. Some landlocked countries inEurope are affluent, such asAndorra,Austria,Liechtenstein,Luxembourg,San Marino,Switzerland, andVatican City, all of which, excluding Luxembourg (a founding member ofNATO), frequently employneutrality in global political issues.

However, 32 out of the 45 landlocked countries, including those inAfrica,Asia, andSouth America, have been classified asLandlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) by theUnited Nations.^[3] Nine of the twelve countries with the lowestHuman Development Index rankings are landlocked.^[4] International initiatives are aimed at reducing inequalities resulting from issues such as these, such as the United NationsSustainable Development Goal 10, which aims to reduce inequality substantially by 2030.^[5]

In 1990, there were only 30 landlocked countries in the world. However, thedissolutions of theSoviet Union andCzechoslovakia; thebreakup of Yugoslavia; theindependence referendums ofSouth Ossetia (de facto state),Eritrea,Montenegro,South Sudan, and theLuhansk People's Republic (de facto state); and theunilateral declaration of independence ofKosovo (de facto state) created 15 new landlocked countries and five landlocked de facto states while the former landlocked country ofCzechoslovakia ceased to exist on 1 January 1993.^[6]

On 30 September 2022, theLuhansk People's Republic (de facto state) wasannexed by Russia and ceased to exist as a landlocked de facto state.^[7]

On 19 September 2023,Azerbaijan launched a new offensive against theRepublic of Artsakh (de facto state) and achieved a decisive victory.^[8] TheGovernment of Artsakh was officially dissolved on 1 January 2024. As a result, Artsakh ceased to exist as a landlocked de facto state and theNagorno-Karabakh region was reintegrated into Azerbaijan.^[9]

As of 1 April 2024, there were 44 landlocked countries and three landlockedde facto states (Kosovo,South Ossetia, andTransnistria) in the world.

Historically, being landlocked has been disadvantageous to a country's development. It cuts a nation off from important sea resources such asfishing, and impedes or prevents direct access tomaritime trade, a crucial component of economic and social advance. As such, coastal regions, or inland regions that have access to the World Ocean, tended to be wealthier and more heavily populated than inland regions that have no access to the World Ocean.Paul Collier in his bookThe Bottom Billion argues that being landlocked in a poor geographical neighbourhood is one of four major development "traps" by which a country can be held back. In general, he found that when a neighbouring country experiences better growth, it tends to spill over into favorable development for the country itself. For landlocked countries, the effect is particularly strong, as they are limited in their trading activity with the rest of the world. He states, "If you are coastal, you serve the world; if you are landlocked, you serve your neighbors."^[10] Others have argued that being landlocked has an advantage as it creates a "natural tariff barrier" that protects the country from cheap imports. In some instances, this has led to more robust local food systems.^[11][12]

Landlockeddeveloping countries have significantly higher costs of international cargo transportation compared to coastal developing countries (in Asia the ratio is 3:1).^[13]

Historically, traveling between a landlocked country and a country which did not border said country required the traveler to pass border controls twice or more. In recent times the advent ofair travel has largely negated this impediment.

Countries have acted to overcome being landlocked by acquiring land that reaches the sea:

• TheRepublic of Ragusa, in 1699, gave the town ofNeum to theOttoman Empire because it did not want to have a land border with theRepublic of Venice.^[14] This small municipality was inherited byBosnia and Herzegovina and now provides limited sea access, splitting theCroatian part of the Adriatic coast in two. Since Bosnia and Herzegovina is a new country, railways and ports have not been built for its need. There is no freight port along its short coastline atNeum, making it effectively landlocked, although there are plans to change this. Instead, thePort of Ploče in Croatia is used.
• TheInternational Congo Society, which owned the territory now constituting theDemocratic Republic of the Congo, was awarded a narrow piece of land cutting throughAngola to connect it to the sea by theConference of Berlin in 1885.
• AfterWorld War I, in theTreaty of Versailles, a part ofGermany designated "thePolish corridor" was given to the newSecond Polish Republic, for access to theBaltic Sea. This gavePoland a short coastline, but without a large harbour. This was also the pretext for making Danzig (nowGdańsk) with its harbour theFree City of Danzig, to which Poland was given free access. However, the Germans placed obstacles to this free access, especially when it came to military material. In response, the small fishing harbour ofGdynia was soon greatly enlarged.
• As a result of a 2005 territorial exchange withUkraine,Moldova received a 600-metre (650-yard) long bank of theDanube (which is aninternational waterway),^[15] subsequently building itsPort of Giurgiulești there.

Countries can establish agreements to provide for free transport of goods through neighbouring countries:

• TheTreaty of Versailles required Germany to offerCzechoslovakia a lease for 99 years of parts of the ports inHamburg andStettin, allowing Czechoslovakia sea trade via theElbe andOder rivers. Stettin was annexed^[16] byPoland afterWorld War II, butHamburg continued thecontract so that part of the port (now calledMoldauhafen) until 2028^[17] could be used for sea trade by a successor of Czechoslovakia, theCzech Republic.
• TheDanube isan international waterway, and thus landlockedAustria,Hungary,Moldova,Serbia andSlovakia have secure access to theBlack Sea. However, oceangoing ships cannot use the Danube, so cargo must be transloaded anyway, and many overseas imports into Austria and Hungary use land transport from Atlantic and Mediterranean ports. A similar situation exists for theRhine river where Switzerland has boat access, but not oceangoing ships.Luxembourg has such through theMoselle, butLiechtenstein has no boat access, even though it is located along the Rhine, as the Rhine is not navigable that far upstream.
• TheMekong is an international waterway so that landlockedLaos has access to theSouth China Sea (since Laos became independent fromFrench Indochina). However, it is not navigable above theKhone Phapheng Falls.
• Free ports allow transshipment to short-distance ships or river vessels.
• TheTIR Convention allows sealed road transport without customs checks and charges, mostly in Europe.^[18]

Losing access to the sea is generally a great loss to a nation, politically, militarily, and economically. The following are examples of countries becoming landlocked.

• The independence ofEritrea, brought about by the 30-yearEritrean War of Independence,^[19] causedEthiopia to become landlocked in 1991 (de facto)/1993 (de jure): theEthiopian Navy operated from foreign ports inDjibouti andYemen before being dissolved in 1996.
• Montenegro'sdecision to abandon theState Union of Serbia and Montenegro caused thefederal unit of Serbia to become a landlockedcurrent independent state.
• Bolivia lost its coastline toChile in theWar of the Pacific and accepted it in treaties signed in 1884 and 1904. The last treaty gives port storage facilities and special treatment for the transit of goods from and to Bolivia through Chilean ports and territory. Peru and Argentina have also given special treatment for the transit of goods. A fluvialBolivian Navy, which did not exist at the time of theWar of the Pacific, was created later and both trains and operates inLake Titicaca and rivers. The Bolivian people annually celebrate a patriotic "Dia del Mar" (Day of the Sea) to remember its territorial loss, which included both the coastal city ofAntofagasta and what has proven to be one of the most significant and lucrative copper deposits in the world. Early in the 21st century, the selection of the route of gas pipes from Bolivia to the sea fueledpopular uprisings, as people were against the option of laying the pipes through Chilean territory.
• Austria and Hungary also lost their access to the sea as a consequence of theTreaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and theTreaty of Trianon (1920) respectively. Previously, althoughCroatia had a limited constitutionalautonomy within theKingdom of Hungary, the City ofFiume/Rijeka on the Croatian coast was governed directly fromBudapest by an appointed governor as acorpus separatum, to provide Hungary with its only internationalport in the periods 1779–1813, 1822–1848 and 1868–1918. The most important ports in Austria wereTrieste andPula, now inItaly and Croatia.
• In 1801, theNizam's dominion ofHyderabad State assumed its current borders as a landlockedprincely state with territories in central Deccan, bounded on all sides byBritish India. For the preceding 150 years it had had aconsiderable coastline on theBay of Bengal that was annexed by the British.^[20]
• It is possible that one of the causes of theParaguayan War wasParaguay's lack of direct ocean access (although this is disputed; see the linked article).
• When theEntente Powers divided the formerOttoman Empire under theTreaty of Sèvres at the close ofWorld War I,Armenia was promised part of the Trebizond vilayet (roughly corresponding to the modernTrabzon andRize provinces inTurkey). This would have given Armenia access to theBlack Sea. However, the Sèvres treaty collapsed with theTurkish War of Independence and was superseded by theTreaty of Lausanne (1923), which firmly established Turkish rule over the area.
• In 2011,South Sudan broke off from theSudan, causing the former to become landlocked. There still remains conflict over the oil fields in South Sudan between the two countries.^[21]

TheUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea now gives a landlocked country a right of access to and from the sea without taxation of traffic through transit states. TheUnited Nations has a programme of action to assist landlocked developing countries,^[22] and the current responsible Undersecretary-General isAnwarul Karim Chowdhury.

Some countries have a long coastline, but much of it may not be readily usable for trade and commerce. For instance, in its early history,Russia's only ports were on theArctic Ocean and frozen shut for much of the year. The wish to gain control of awarm-water port was a major motivator of Russian expansion towards theBaltic Sea,Black Sea, andPacific Ocean. On the other hand, some landlocked countries can have access to the ocean along wide navigable rivers. For instance, Paraguay (and Bolivia to a lesser extent) have access to the ocean through theParaguay andParaná rivers.

Several countries have coastlines on landlocked bodies of water, such as theCaspian Sea and theDead Sea. Since these seas are in effectlakes without access to wider seaborne trade, countries such asKazakhstan are still considered landlocked. Although the Caspian Sea is connected to the Black Sea via the man-madeVolga–Don Canal, large oceangoing ships are unable to traverse it.

Some countries or important parts of countries have coastlines or river ports reachable by oceangoing ships, but only through a strait or river part of the territory of another country. The other country can put restriction on passage. Between 1429 and 1857Poland,Sweden,Russia and more Baltic countries were suffering from theSound Dues, a toll needed to be paid to reach Western European waters. Sweden bypassed it by conqueringScania in 1658.

Landlocked countries may be bordered by a single country having direct access to thehigh seas, two or more such countries, or be surrounded by other landlocked countries, making a country doubly landlocked.

Three countries are landlocked by a single country (enclaved countries):

• Lesotho, a state surrounded bySouth Africa.
• San Marino, a state surrounded byItaly.
• Vatican City, acity-state surrounded byItaly, specificallyRome.

Seven landlocked countries are surrounded by only two mutually bordering neighbours (semi-enclaved countries):

• Andorra (betweenFrance andSpain)
• Bhutan (betweenChina andIndia)
• Eswatini (betweenMozambique andSouth Africa)
• Liechtenstein (betweenAustria andSwitzerland) – one of the only two "doubly landlocked countries" in the world
• Moldova (betweenRomania andUkraine) – ignoringTransnistria, a de facto state
• Mongolia (betweenChina andRussia)
• Nepal (betweenChina andIndia)

To this group could be added three landlocked territories, two of themde factostates with limited or no international recognition:

• Transnistria (betweenMoldova andUkraine) – de facto state
• South Ossetia (betweenGeorgia andRussia) – de facto state
• West Bank (betweenIsrael andJordan) –Israeli-occupied territory partly administered by theState of Palestine^{[23][24][25][26]}

A country is "doubly landlocked" or "double-landlocked" when it is surrounded entirely by landlocked countries (i.e. requiring the crossing of at least two national borders to reach a coastline).^[27][28] There are two such countries:

• Liechtenstein inWestern Europe, surrounded byAustria andSwitzerland.^[29]
• Uzbekistan inCentral Asia, surrounded byAfghanistan,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan, andTurkmenistan.^[30]

After the dissolution of theHoly Roman Empire, theKingdom of Württemberg became a doubly landlocked state, borderingBavaria,Baden,Switzerland, theGrand Duchy of Hesse (Wimpfen exclave),Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, andHohenzollern-Hechingen. The latter two were themselves landlocked between each other, Württemberg, and Baden. In 1866 they became an exclave ofPrussia, giving Württemberg a border with a coastal country but any path to a coast would still lead across at least two borders. TheFree City of Frankfurt which was independent between 1815 and 1866 was doubly landlocked as it bordered theElectorate of Hesse, theGrand Duchy of Hesse,Hesse-Homburg, andNassau. In theGerman Confederation there were several other landlocked states that only bordered landlocked states and landlocked exclaves of coastal states: theGrand Duchy of Hesse,Hesse-Homburg,Nassau (all until 1866),Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld,Saxe-Hildburghausen (both until 1826), andReuss, elder line (until 1871). All of these bordered Prussia but not the main territory with sea access.

There were no doubly landlocked countries from theunification of Germany in 1871 until the end ofWorld War I. Liechtenstein bordered theAustro-Hungarian Empire, which had anAdriatic coastline, and Uzbekistan was then part of theRussian Empire, which had both ocean and sea access.

With thedissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918 and creation of an independent, landlockedAustria, Liechtenstein became the sole doubly landlocked country until 1938. In theAnschluss that year, Austria was absorbed intoNazi Germany, which possessed a border on theBaltic Sea and theNorth Sea. After World War II, Austria regained its independence and Liechtenstein once again became doubly landlocked.

Uzbekistan, which had been part of theRussian Empire and then theSoviet Union, gained its independence with thedissolution of the latter in 1991 and became the second doubly landlocked country.

However, Uzbekistan's doubly landlocked status depends on whether theCaspian Sea is considered a lake or a sea. In the latter case, Uzbekistan is not doubly landlocked, since its neighbors Turkmenistan andKazakhstan have access to the Caspian Sea.^[31]

Notes:

^aHas a coastline on the inland saltwaterCaspian Sea

^bDe facto state

^cLandlocked by a single country

^dDoubly landlocked country

The landlocked countries andde facto states can be grouped incontiguous groups as follows:^[32]

• Eastern, Middle, and Western African cluster (10):Burkina Faso,Burundi, theCentral African Republic,Chad,Ethiopia,Mali,Niger,Rwanda,South Sudan, andUganda^[33]
• Eastern, Southern, and Western European cluster (9):Austria,Czechia,Hungary,Kosovo (de facto state),Liechtenstein,North Macedonia,Serbia,Slovakia, andSwitzerland^[34]
• Central and Southern Asian cluster (6):Afghanistan,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan,Tajikistan,Turkmenistan, andUzbekistan^[35]
• Eastern and Southern African cluster (4):Botswana,Malawi,Zambia, andZimbabwe^[33]
• Eastern European group (2):Moldova andTransnistria (de facto state)^[34]
• South American group (2):Bolivia andParaguay^[36]
• Western Asian group (2):Armenia andAzerbaijan^[35]

Notes:

1. If it were not for the 40 km (25 mi) ofcoastline atMoanda,DR Congo would join the two African clusters into one, making it the biggest contiguous cluster in the world instead.
2. The Central and Southern Asian cluster and the Western Asian group can be considered contiguous, joined by the landlockedCaspian Sea.Mongolia is almost a part of this cluster too, being separated fromKazakhstan by only 30 km (19 mi), across Chinese or Russian territory.
3. Before theAnnexation of Sikkim by India, theHimalayan states ofBhutan,Nepal, andSikkim formed their own Southern Asian group.

There are the following 12 "single" landlocked countries (each of them borders no other landlocked country or de facto state):

• Asia (5):Bhutan,Laos,Mongolia,Nepal, andSouth Ossetia (de facto state)^[35]
• Europe (5):Andorra,Belarus,Luxembourg,San Marino, andVatican City (theHoly See)^[34]
• Africa (2):Eswatini andLesotho^[33]

According to theUnited Nations geoscheme (excluding thede facto states),Africa has the most landlocked countries, at 16, followed byEurope (14),Asia (12), andSouth America (2). However, ifArmenia,Azerbaijan,Kazakhstan, andSouth Ossetia (de facto state) are counted as parts of Europe, then Europe has the most landlocked countries, at 20 (including all three landlocked de facto states). If thesetranscontinental orculturally European countries are included in Asia, then both Africa and Europe (includingKosovo andTransnistria) have the most, at 16. Depending on the status ofKazakhstan and theSouth Caucasian countries, Asia has between 9 and 13 (includingSouth Ossetia). South America only has two landlocked countries:Bolivia andParaguay.

Australia andNorth America have no landlocked countries, whileAntarctica has no countries at all.Oceania (which is usually not considered a continent but a geographical region by theEnglish-speaking countries) also has no landlocked countries.

All landlocked countries, exceptBolivia andParaguay, are located on thecontinental mainland ofAfro-Eurasia.

• Convention on Transit Trade of Land-locked States
• Declaration recognising the Right to a Flag of States having no Sea-coast
• Enclave and exclave
• Island country
  • List of island countries
• List of countries and territories by land and maritime borders
• List of countries that border only one other country
• Navies of landlocked countries
• List of countries bordering on two or more oceans