GeoKnow › Countries › Landlocked countries

Landlocked countries

A landlocked country has no coastline on an ocean. This list has 45 places: the 44 widely recognised landlocked countries plus Kosovo. Where a page exists on GeoKnow it is linked.

Countries such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan touch the Caspian Sea, which is an enclosed body of water rather than part of the ocean, so they are normally counted as landlocked.

The list

Afghanistan Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Bhutan Bolivia Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Central African Republic Chad Czechia Eswatini Ethiopia Hungary Kazakhstan Kosovo Kyrgyzstan Laos Lesotho Liechtenstein Luxembourg Malawi Mali Moldova Mongolia Nepal Niger North Macedonia Paraguay Rwanda San Marino Serbia Slovakia South Sudan Switzerland Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uganda Uzbekistan Vatican City Zambia Zimbabwe

Why it matters

Landlocked countries depend on neighbours for sea access, so trade usually passes through other countries' ports. Several of them, such as Switzerland and Austria, are wealthy anyway, while many in Africa and central Asia face higher transport costs.

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