Landlocked: countries with no ocean coastline

What landlocked means

A landlocked country has no coastline. A children's travel guide says an independent country is landlocked when other countries surround it and it has no access to an ocean. As of 2026, there were 44 landlocked countries in the world, plus three landlocked de facto states. Two of the 44 countries are 'doubly landlocked', meaning landlocked countries surround them entirely.

By area, Kazakhstan is the biggest landlocked country. Kyrgyzstan lies farther from an ocean than any other landlocked country, and Ethiopia has the largest population among landlocked countries. A children's travel guide notes that Vatican City is the smallest landlocked country. A children's travel guide calls a country surrounded by just one other an 'enclave'. Lesotho, San Marino and Vatican City are each surrounded by a single country, while Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are the two doubly landlocked countries.

Why sea access matters

Landlocked countries generally face political and economic drawbacks that a coastline would help them avoid. A lack of coast cuts a country off from sea resources such as fishing and makes maritime trade harder. For landlocked developing countries, moving international cargo costs significantly more than it does for coastal developing countries, at a ratio of 3 to 1 in Asia. A children's travel guide notes that landlocked countries do not take part in the marine economy and face higher costs for moving exports and imports.

A number of European landlocked countries are affluent, including Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, Liechtenstein, San Marino, Luxembourg and Vatican City. Except for Luxembourg, these countries often stay neutral in global political matters. The United Nations has classified 32 of the 44 landlocked countries as Landlocked Developing Countries. Nine of the twelve countries ranked lowest on the Human Development Index are landlocked.

Historically, regions with a coast, or inland regions able to reach the World Ocean, were generally wealthier and more populous than inland regions without such access. The author of The Bottom Billion counts being landlocked in a poor geographical neighbourhood as one of four major development "traps". Others have argued that being landlocked creates a 'natural tariff barrier' that protects a country from cheap imports, and in some cases this has produced stronger local food systems.

Routes to the sea

Some countries have tried to overcome being landlocked by acquiring land with a coastline. In 1699, the Republic of Ragusa handed Neum to the Ottoman Empire because it wanted no land border with the Republic of Venice. Bosnia and Herzegovina later inherited the town, which gives that country limited sea access and divides the Croatian stretch of the Adriatic coast in two. In 1885, the Conference of Berlin awarded the International Congo Society a narrow strip of land through Angola to connect the territory now forming the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the sea.

After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles gave the new Second Polish Republic a part of Germany known as 'the Polish corridor', so that it could reach the Baltic Sea. In 2005, Moldova gained a 600-metre stretch of the Danube bank from Ukraine in a territorial exchange and later built its Port of Giurgiulești there.

Countries can also make agreements for free transport of goods through neighbours. The Treaty of Versailles required Germany to give Czechoslovakia a 99-year lease on parts of the ports at Hamburg and Stettin. The Danube counts as an international waterway, giving landlocked Austria, Hungary, Moldova, Serbia and Slovakia secure access to the Black Sea, though ocean-going ships cannot use it, so cargo is transloaded. The Mekong gives landlocked Laos access to the South China Sea, though above the Khone Phapheng Falls the river cannot be navigated. Under the TIR Convention, sealed road transport can move without customs checks or charges, mainly in Europe.

Under United Nations rules on the law of the sea, a landlocked country has a right to reach the sea and return, and traffic through transit states is not taxed. Early in its history, Russia had ports only on the Arctic Ocean, frozen for much of the year. The desire for a warm-water port drove Russian expansion towards the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Paraguay, and to a lesser degree Bolivia, can reach the ocean via the Paraguay and Paraná rivers.

A changing map

The world had just 30 landlocked countries in 1990. The break-up of the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, the end of Yugoslavia, independence referendums and a unilateral declaration of independence added fifteen countries without a coastline, along with five landlocked de facto states. Czechoslovakia came to an end on 1 January 1993. By 1 April 2024, the total was 44 countries with no coastline, plus three de facto states: Kosovo, South Ossetia and Transnistria.

In the War of the Pacific, which ran from 1879 to 1884, Bolivia lost its coastline to Chile and accepted the loss in treaties signed in 1884 and 1904. Each year Bolivians mark a patriotic 'Dia del Mar' (Day of the Sea) to remember the loss, which took in the coastal city of Antofagasta and a copper deposit that has proved especially significant and lucrative. A 30-year war of independence left Eritrea independent, and Ethiopia became landlocked as a result. When Montenegro left the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, Serbia became a landlocked independent state.

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