Landlocked Country
It is like a bedroom with no outside door of its own, meaning you always have to walk through your neighbor's living room to step outside.
Definition A landlocked country is a nation entirely surrounded by land, possessing no direct coastline along an ocean or open sea. There are over 40 landlocked countries worldwide, and reaching the ocean requires crossing the land or airspace of neighboring nations.
The Challenge of Having No Direct Door to the Sea
Most everyday goods traded around the globe travel aboard massive cargo ships. Maritime shipping remains the most economical way to move freight, carrying far heavier volumes at much lower costs than airplanes or trains.
Landlocked countries, however, lack domestic seaports to send cargo straight to ocean routes. To import or export goods, they must load freight onto trucks or railcars, cross international borders, and rely on ports in neighboring countries. Each border crossing introduces customs checks, transit fees, and delays, significantly increasing total logistics costs.
This lack of sea access places landlocked nations at a distinct disadvantage in transit cost and time. Furthermore, if diplomatic tensions or disputes arise with a neighboring state, borders can close, creating a severe risk of cut-off trade routes.
A Closer Look: The Right to Access the Sea
Can a transit country simply block a landlocked neighbor from reaching the ocean? International law—specifically the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)—recognizes the right of access to and from the sea and freedom of transit as a core legal protection.
Under these rules, coastal neighbors cannot arbitrarily obstruct transit cargo traveling from a landlocked nation. Landlocked countries also have the right to sail ships under their own national flags on the high seas, lay submarine cables, and share in maritime resources.
A few nations face an even rarer geographic situation: being surrounded exclusively by countries that are also landlocked. Known as doubly landlocked countries, only two exist worldwide: Liechtenstein in Europe and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. To reach an open coast, their cargo must cross at least two international borders.
How Landlocked Nations Prosper
A landlocked geography does not guarantee economic hardship. Countries like Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg possess no coastline, yet rank among the wealthiest nations in the world.
Instead of relying on heavy raw materials with high freight costs, these economies prioritized high-value, knowledge-intensive industries—such as precision instruments, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and software. Compact, valuable goods can be flown cost-effectively by air, while digital and financial assets cross borders seamlessly over the internet.
While being landlocked presents real trade and security hurdles, strong diplomatic ties and smart industrial strategies can overcome the limits of physical geography.
🤔 Common misconceptions
Because landlocked countries have no coastline, they never have naval forces.
Several landlocked nations maintain naval units or riverine patrol forces on border-adjacent lakes and major waterways, such as Bolivia on Lake Titicaca or Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on the Caspian Sea.
🧺 Where you meet it
A landlocked country has no direct ocean coastline, overcoming geographic trade hurdles through transit agreements and high-value industries.