How many landlocked countries are there in the world?
Guess before you scroll — the answer is below
The answer
44 countries
Forty-four countries in the world have no coastline at all. Two of them — Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan — are "doubly landlocked," meaning every country that surrounds them is itself landlocked too. Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country by area; the Vatican is the smallest.
How to get close to this number
Estimate by continent. Africa and Europe each contribute a dozen or more, central Asia several, South America two, and Oceania none. Adding regional counts gets you into the forties, and it is far more reliable than trying to recall a global figure for a category most people never think about as a category.
The concept in the explanation is the one worth learning: doubly landlocked means every neighbouring country is itself landlocked, so reaching the sea requires crossing at least two borders. There are only two such countries on Earth, and the fact that the concept needs a name at all is a good illustration of how specific geographic categories can get.
The size range is the other surprise. The largest landlocked country is one of the largest countries in the world by area, and the smallest is a city-state of a few hectares. Landlockedness is a topological property rather than a size one, so the category contains members that have nothing else in common — which is why it is used in development economics as a constraint rather than as a description.
Where this number comes from
| Source | UN Office of the High Representative for LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS |
|---|---|
| Figure refers to | 2024 |
| Last checked | |
| Unit | countries |
Numbers move. If this one has drifted from its source, let us know.
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