For millennia, the ocean has been the world’s great highway. It’s a vast, open expanse for trade, a source of immense resources, and a strategic blue-water buffer for coastal nations. Control of the seas has built empires and fueled economies. But what if your country doesn’t have a single kilometer of coastline? What if your access to this global highway is entirely dependent on the goodwill of your neighbors?

This is the reality for 44 of the world’s sovereign states. From the mountains of Asia to the heart of Africa, being landlocked is a geographical fact that carries profound and persistent consequences. It’s a fundamental constraint that shapes everything from a nation’s wealth to its security posture.

Mapping the World’s Landlocked Nations

A landlocked country is a state entirely enclosed by land, or one whose only coastlines lie on endorheic basins (closed seas), like the Caspian Sea. A quick glance at a world map reveals distinct clusters of these nations:

• Africa (16): The continent with the most landlocked countries, including nations like Ethiopia, Uganda, Chad, and Botswana.
• Europe (14): Many are small, prosperous micronations like Andorra and Liechtenstein, but the list also includes larger states like Austria, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic.
• Asia (12): Home to vast landlocked nations like Kazakhstan and Mongolia, as well as mountainous countries like Nepal and Afghanistan.
• South America (2): Only Bolivia and Paraguay are without a coastline on the continent.

Notably, North America and Oceania have no landlocked countries. Even more fascinating is the rare phenomenon of a doubly-landlocked country—a nation that is completely surrounded by other landlocked countries. To reach a coastline from one of these, you must cross at least two international borders. There are only two such countries in the world: Liechtenstein in Europe (surrounded by landlocked Switzerland and Austria) and Uzbekistan in Central Asia.

The Tyranny of Transit: Crippling Economic Hurdles

The single greatest disadvantage of being landlocked is economic. With over 80% of global merchandise trade by volume carried by sea, direct access to a port is a massive economic lubricant. Landlocked nations are deprived of this, creating a cascade of challenges.

1. Higher Transport Costs: Every container of goods, whether an import or an export, must be transported overland through at least one other country—a “transit state.” This adds significant costs due to extra distance, customs fees, tariffs, and logistical complexity. Studies by the World Bank have consistently shown that landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) face trade costs that are, on average, 1.5 times higher than their coastal counterparts. This makes their exports less competitive on the global market and their imports more expensive for their own citizens.

2. Dependency and Vulnerability: This reliance on transit states is not just an economic issue; it’s a political one. A coastal neighbor can use its geographical advantage as leverage. Political disputes can lead to border closures or deliberate slowdowns at customs, effectively holding the landlocked country’s economy hostage. A stark example is Nepal, which relies heavily on India for transit. Political tensions have led to several Indian “blockades” over the decades, most recently in 2015, which caused a severe humanitarian and economic crisis in Nepal.

3. The Ghost of Lost Coastlines: For some, being landlocked is a painful historical wound. Bolivia lost its coastal territory to Chile in the War of the Pacific in the late 19th century. To this day, the loss of its Litoral Department is a deeply emotional and political issue, central to Bolivian national identity. The country continues to pursue legal and diplomatic avenues to regain sovereign access to the sea, a quest commemorated in its annual “Día del Mar” (Day of the Sea).

Securing a Nation Without a Shoreline

The challenges of being landlocked extend deep into national security. The lack of a coastline fundamentally alters a country’s strategic calculus.

First, the obvious: no navy. While some landlocked countries, like Paraguay and Bolivia, maintain “brown-water navies” to patrol major rivers and lakes, they cannot project power or protect maritime trade routes on the open ocean. This means they are completely reliant on international norms and the navies of other powers to keep sea lanes open.

Second, border management becomes immensely more complex. Instead of a coastline acting as a natural barrier, a landlocked country is surrounded by neighbors. An unstable neighbor can mean a direct and immediate threat, with conflict, refugees, and illicit trafficking spilling across porous land borders. Consider Chad, a nation landlocked in a volatile region surrounded by Libya, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Its security is inextricably linked to the stability—or instability—of all its neighbors.

Overcoming the Geographic Lottery

While the physical geography is unchangeable, human geography—politics, economics, and technology—is not. Landlocked countries are not doomed to failure; they simply have to play the game on a harder difficulty setting. Successful ones have adopted clever strategies to mitigate their disadvantages.

• Exceptional Diplomacy: Maintaining excellent, stable relationships with transit neighbors is priority number one. This often involves deep integration into regional economic blocs, like the East African Community, which works to streamline customs and transit procedures for members like Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi.
• Investing in Infrastructure: Heavy investment in high-quality road and rail corridors is non-negotiable. The “Lapis Lazuli Corridor” is a prime example, an international transit route designed to connect landlocked Afghanistan with Turkey via Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, providing a vital link to European markets.
• Economic Specialization: Since exporting cheap, bulky goods is difficult, successful landlocked nations often specialize in high-value, low-volume products or services. Switzerland is the classic example, its economy built on finance, pharmaceuticals, and luxury watches—items where shipping costs are a negligible fraction of the total value. In Africa, Botswana has leveraged its diamond wealth and stable governance to become one of the continent’s success stories, despite its geography.
• Leapfrogging with Technology: The digital revolution offers a new coastline. A nation can export services, software, and intellectual property with a fiber-optic cable, bypassing ports entirely. This provides a massive opportunity for landlocked countries to integrate into the global economy in ways that were previously impossible.

Being landlocked is an undeniable handicap. It’s a reminder that geography is not just a backdrop for human history, but an active force shaping it. While the challenges are immense, the story of the world’s 44 landlocked nations is also one of resilience, innovation, and the persistent human drive to overcome the limitations of the physical world.