Landlocked Countries: All 44, by Continent

Forty-four countries on Earth never touch the sea. Some are tiny — Vatican City, Liechtenstein, San Marino. Some are vast — Kazakhstan is larger than Western Europe. Two of them, remarkably, are even more cut off than that: every one of their neighbours is also landlocked. Here is the complete list, organised by continent, with the geography and economics of having no coast.

What "landlocked" actually means

A landlocked country is one whose entire border is land. No ocean coast, no open sea. Internal lakes and rivers don't count, even if they're navigable — Bolivia has Lake Titicaca, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan share the Aral Sea, Hungary has the Danube, but none of those connect to the open ocean without crossing somebody else's territory.

There are 44 fully landlocked sovereign countries as of 2026. Africa has the most (16), followed by Europe (14, depending on whether you count Kosovo), Asia (12), and South America (just 2). Australia and Oceania have none — every Pacific island nation has a coast. North and Central America have none either, and the Caribbean by definition has none. So three of the seven continents have zero landlocked countries.

Africa — 16 landlocked countries

• Botswana — Gaborone
• Burkina Faso — Ouagadougou
• Burundi — Gitega
• Central African Republic — Bangui
• Chad — N'Djamena
• Eswatini — Mbabane
• Ethiopia — Addis Ababa
• Lesotho — Maseru (the only African country entirely surrounded by another)
• Malawi — Lilongwe
• Mali — Bamako
• Niger — Niamey
• Rwanda — Kigali
• South Sudan — Juba
• Uganda — Kampala
• Zambia — Lusaka
• Zimbabwe — Harare

Africa has more landlocked countries than any other continent — a direct consequence of how the colonial powers drew the borders at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, with little regard for who needed access to the sea. Ethiopia lost its coastline in 1993 when Eritrea gained independence; before that, Ethiopia had a Red Sea coast. South Sudan has been landlocked since its 2011 independence from Sudan. Lesotho is unique in being a complete enclave: it's the only sovereign country on the continent surrounded entirely by one other (South Africa).

Europe — 14 landlocked countries

• Andorra — Andorra la Vella
• Austria — Vienna
• Belarus — Minsk
• Czechia — Prague
• Hungary — Budapest
• Kosovo — Pristina (partially recognised)
• Liechtenstein — Vaduz (one of two doubly-landlocked countries)
• Luxembourg — Luxembourg City
• Moldova — Chișinău
• North Macedonia — Skopje
• San Marino — San Marino
• Serbia — Belgrade
• Slovakia — Bratislava
• Switzerland — Bern
• Vatican City — Vatican City

That's actually 15 — we include Kosovo despite limited UN recognition because most atlases do. Europe's compact size and dense river network mean landlocked status matters less than it does in Africa or Asia: most European landlocked countries are within a day's drive of a port. Liechtenstein is one of just two doubly-landlocked countries on Earth (its only neighbours, Switzerland and Austria, are both also landlocked). Vatican City is technically landlocked but is so small (0.44 km²) that most lists exclude it as an edge case.

Asia — 12 landlocked countries

• Afghanistan — Kabul
• Armenia — Yerevan
• Azerbaijan — Baku (touches the Caspian Sea, but the Caspian is a closed inland body, so still landlocked)
• Bhutan — Thimphu
• Kazakhstan — Astana (also Caspian-bordering; same caveat)
• Kyrgyzstan — Bishkek
• Laos — Vientiane (the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia)
• Mongolia — Ulaanbaatar
• Nepal — Kathmandu
• Tajikistan — Dushanbe
• Turkmenistan — Ashgabat (Caspian)
• Uzbekistan — Tashkent (the second of the two doubly-landlocked countries)

The five Central Asian "Stans" are all landlocked. Uzbekistan joins Liechtenstein as one of only two doubly-landlocked countries on Earth — every one of its five neighbours (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan) is also landlocked, so an Uzbek shipment must cross at least two international borders before it reaches the sea. Caspian Sea countries (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan) are usually still classified as landlocked because the Caspian is a closed body of water with no natural outlet to an ocean.

South America — 2 landlocked countries

• Bolivia — Sucre / La Paz
• Paraguay — Asunción

Just two. Both gained independence from Spain in the early 19th century with coastlines and lost them through war. Bolivia lost its Pacific coast to Chile in the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), a conflict over nitrate-rich desert. The country still maintains a navy — operating on Lake Titicaca and the Amazon system — and the loss of sea access remains a sore diplomatic point with Chile to this day. Paraguay lost most of its territory and population in the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870) against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay; it kept its borders inland but lost access to the South Atlantic.

The two doubly-landlocked countries

• Liechtenstein — bordered by Switzerland and Austria, both landlocked. To reach the Mediterranean you'd need to cross Switzerland → Italy or France. To reach the North Sea: Austria → Germany → Netherlands.
• Uzbekistan — bordered by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan, all landlocked. The shortest route to open sea is via Iran (the Persian Gulf) or via Pakistan (the Arabian Sea), in both cases requiring transit through at least one other country first.

For most of human history, countries with no sea access have paid more for trade. The UN classifies "Landlocked Developing Countries" as a special category eligible for transit-corridor support. Some land-routes through neighbours have improved — the Belt and Road Initiative has built rail links from Central Asia to Chinese ports — but for most landlocked countries, paying ~50% more for international trade than coastal neighbours is still the norm.

Why landlocked status still matters

Sea shipping is roughly 5–10× cheaper per tonne-kilometre than overland transport. A landlocked country must rely on neighbours' ports, neighbours' road and rail infrastructure, neighbours' political stability, and neighbours' willingness to negotiate transit fees. When a neighbour closes a border, raises tariffs, or simply has poor infrastructure, the landlocked country pays. This is why countries like Switzerland and Austria — surrounded by stable, infrastructure-rich neighbours — barely notice their landlocked status, while countries like Chad or the Central African Republic feel it constantly.

The exceptions are countries where natural resources outweigh the trade penalty. Botswana (diamonds), Kazakhstan (oil and uranium), Mongolia (copper and coal), and Switzerland (banking, pharmaceuticals) all do well despite no coast — their export economies are valuable enough that the extra shipping cost is a small percentage of total value.

Landlocked extremes

• Largest landlocked country: Kazakhstan (~2.7 million km²).
• Smallest landlocked country: Vatican City (0.44 km²); excluding microstates, San Marino (61 km²) or Liechtenstein (160 km²).
• Most populous landlocked country: Ethiopia (~120 million).
• Least populous landlocked country: Vatican City (~800); excluding microstates, San Marino (~33,000).
• Highest-altitude landlocked capital: La Paz, Bolivia (~3,650 m).
• Most recently landlocked: South Sudan (independent 2011, landlocked from day one).
• Most recently made landlocked: Ethiopia, when Eritrea seceded in 1993 and took the Red Sea coast.
• Doubly-landlocked countries: Liechtenstein, Uzbekistan.