A landlocked country is completely surrounded by land.
That means it has no direct access to a sea or an ocean, an important advantage for trade.
About one-fifth of the world’s countries, 47 to be exact, are landlocked.
They must depend on their neighbors to give them access to the sea.
North America and Australia are the only continents that do not have a landlocked country inside their continents.
Many countries also have constricted access to the sea if the country’s only coastline is on a sea that is almost landlocked, such as the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea.
This means ocean access can be easily blocked.
An island country can conversely be considered waterlocked, which means one must cross water to reach land abroad, because it is entirely surrounded by water.
