List of countries that border only one other country

This is a list of countries that have a land border with only one other country. Some on this list have a maritime border with additional countries. Some countries, which are not listed here, have no land border but do have a maritime border with a single other country, such as Sri Lanka.

There are generally three arrangements by which a country would have a single land border:

an island divided between two states, such as between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, or between Ireland and the United Kingdom.
a peninsula or a semi-enclave, where one country has a land border with a neighbouring one but is otherwise surrounded by sea, while the neighbour borders other countries—examples are Portugal (neighbouring Spain), The Gambia (surrounded by Senegal) and Brunei (surrounded by Malaysia). This applies to peninsulas, but also to non-peninsular nations like The Gambia and Brunei.
the three countries forming a landlocked true enclave, surrounded by a larger country: San Marino and Vatican City (within Italy) and Lesotho (within South Africa).

Territory leased or ceded by one country to another for perpetual use, but not in sovereignty, such as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba, or memorials, such as the American Cemetery in France, do not constitute true territorial borders because the land occupied remains a formal part of the host country.

This list is based on the Correlates of War Direct Contiguity data set, with maritime causeways and bridges not being counted.^[1]

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When it comes to neighbors, most countries have several options: like North to Canada or South to Mexico. But there are countries that don't have this freedom of choice, not because they're islands but because they're trapped in another country. For example: tiny Vatican City, which fits inside of not just Italy, but also just Rome. How Vatican City got surrounded is complicated, but not unique for there is also the Republic of San Marino, home to 30,000 citizens which Italy also completely surrounds. Italy, apparently, is a country that likes countries in its country. But trapping nations is not just Italy's thing for there's also Lesotho, in South Africa which is both the largest encircled country at 70 times Vatican City's size and the most populated with over 2,000,000 citizens. The thing that makes these three countries' borders bizarre is that any path in or out must go through the one and only neighbor they have. But now take a look at The Gambia, which excluding that tiny ocean border, is as surrounded as any nation can get. If we amend the previous rule to every land route, now we've made a category of single-neighbored nations. Which includes all four of these and countries like Portugal, where the only way in or out is through Spain. Who else is on this list? Well, there's Monaco which must go through France, Qatar through Saudi Arabia Denmark through Germany, South Korea through North Korea (though South Korea might as well be an island nation for most practical travel purposes) East Timor and Papua New Guinea both through Indonesia, Brunei through Malaysia And there are two sets of twins: there is The Dominican Republic whose only neighbor is Haiti and Haiti, whose only neighbor is The Dominican Republic. And the second set is: Ireland through the United Kingdom and the United Kingdom through Ireland. A side note here: While there are tons of 'British' places around the world, some of which border other nations -- these are not part of the United Kingdom. It's complicated. Though if you wanted to, you could argue that the United Kingdom technically dug a land border under the channel to the continent, presumably to be closer to France, her best friend ever. Finally, there's one more country in this category: Canada: the largest single-neighbored, nation in the world.

Countries bordering only one other country

Landlocked

Country	Neighbour	Border length		Notes
Country	Neighbour	km	mi	Notes
Lesotho	South Africa	909	565	Lesotho is an enclave which is entirely surrounded by South Africa.
San Marino	Italy	39	24	San Marino is an enclave entirely surrounded by Italy.
Vatican City	Italy	3.2	2.0	The Vatican City is an enclave entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy.

With coast

Country	Neighbour	Border length		Notes
Country	Neighbour	km	mi	Notes
Brunei	Malaysia	381	237	Borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
Dominican Republic	Haiti	360	220	On the island of Hispaniola
The Gambia	Senegal	740	460	The Republic of the Gambia is bordered to the north, south and east by Senegal.
Haiti	Dominican Republic	360	220	On the island of Hispaniola
Republic of Ireland	United Kingdom	360	220	The Republic of Ireland borders the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland region on the island of Ireland.
Monaco	France	4.4	2.7
Papua New Guinea	Indonesia	820	510	On the island of New Guinea
Portugal	Spain	1,214	754
Qatar	Saudi Arabia	60	37	The planned Qatar–Bahrain Causeway would connect Qatar to Bahrain.
South Korea	North Korea	238	148	On the Korean Peninsula, at the Demarcation Line. The two countries are separated by a 4 km wide Demilitarized Zone. Both Koreas claim the Korean Peninsula.
Timor-Leste	Indonesia	228	142	On the island of Timor.
United Kingdom	Republic of Ireland	360	220	On the island of Ireland. The British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia border Spain and Cyprus respectively, but these territories are not part of the United Kingdom proper (see #Dependent territories section).

Causeways, bridges, and tunnels

Often called fixed crossings or fixed links, transportation corridors constructed to cross bodies of water without any intermittent connections such as ferries or ships may be between different states. These may be considered artificial "persistent" borderpoints for land vehicles or pedestrians, but are not typically considered land borders given their need for continuous operation and maintenance, as well as their ease of volume control or closure by either state. Two countries are islands and have no land borders, but maintain fixed borderpoints with other nations.

Country	Land neighbour	Borderpoint neighbour	Notes
Country	Land neighbour	Borderpoint neighbour	Notes	United Kingdom	Republic of Ireland	France	In addition to its border with Ireland, has a fixed link with France in the Channel Tunnel.
Bahrain	None, Since Bahrain is an island.	Saudi Arabia	Although an island nation with no natural land borders, Bahrain maintains persistent connection to Saudi Arabia by the King Fahd Causeway at Passport Island.
Singapore	None, Since Singapore is cut off by a strait. (Specifically, the Strait of Johor.)	Malaysia	Although an island nation with no natural land borders, Singapore maintains persistent connections to Malaysia by the Johor Causeway and the Malaysia–Singapore Second Link.
Liechtenstein	Austria	Switzerland	In addition to its land border with Austria, Liechtenstein has five bridges crossing the river Rhine to Switzerland.

Dependent territories

In some cases, a dependent territory of one nation borders another nation.

Territory	Sovereignty	Neighbour	Border length	Notes
Territory	Sovereignty	Neighbour	km	Notes
Akrotiri and Dhekelia	United Kingdom	Cyprus	108	British sovereign base areas, border the Republic of Cyprus. Dhekelia also borders the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, but the latter is recognised only by Turkey.
Gibraltar	United Kingdom	Spain	1.2	A British overseas territory, occupies a small peninsula and has a 1.2 km (0.75 mi) land border with Spain. Spain claims some of Gibraltar as its own territory.
Ross Dependency	New Zealand	Australia		New Zealand's (largely unrecognised) territorial claim in Antarctica borders only the Australian Antarctic Territory and the unclaimed Marie Byrd Land. (It also touches other claims at the South Pole.)

Integral parts of sovereign states

In most cases, an integral part of a larger country shares a border with another nation.

Territory	Sovereignty	Neighbour	Border length	Notes
Territory	Sovereignty	Neighbour	Åland	Notes	Finland	Sweden	528,60 m	Autonomous region of Finland. Åland had a dispute in Market Island.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands	France	Australia	5.533.470,05 m	Adélie Land, France's (largely unrecognised) claim in Antarctica borders only the Australian Antarctic Territory. (It also touches other claims at the South Pole.)
Greenland	Kingdom of Denmark	Canada	1,280 m	A constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland had a border dispute with Canada regarding uninhabited Hans Island. The island is located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait (between Canada's Ellesmere Island and northern Greenland), which constitutes the agreed maritime border. On June 11, 2022, both countries signed an agreement to split the island, which will come into effect as soon as the parliaments of Canada, Denmark, Greenland, and Nunavut ratify it.^[2]
Saint Martin	France	Kingdom of the Netherlands	16	The island is split between two island territories: the northern half, Saint-Martin, is a French overseas collectivity; the southern half, Sint Maarten, is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Sint Maarten	Kingdom of the Netherlands	France	16

Historical

Many countries historically had only one neighbour. Some no longer exist while others now have either no land borders or borders with more than one nation due to border changes.

Canada: bordered only by the United States until 2022, it now shares a short border with the Kingdom of Denmark at Hans Island, with Canada's Nunavut on one side and Denmark's Greenland on the other side.
Kingdom of Denmark: bordered only by Germany (with a causeway connecting it to Sweden) until 2022 (the constituent country of Denmark still only borders Germany), it now shares a short border with Canada at Hans Island, with Canada's Nunavut on one side and Denmark's Greenland on the other side.
Korea: bordered only China for several hundred years before 1860, after which a second international border with Russia appeared (approx. 17 km (11 mi) long), according to the Convention of Peking. Following the division of Korea in 1945 only North Korea now shares this border.
Ciskei: one of the Bantustans of South Africa; created under apartheid, reincorporated on April 27, 1994.
Venda: another Bantustan, Venda was a true enclave bordering only South Africa and separated narrowly from Zimbabwe by the Madimbo corridor to the north; reincorporated on April 27, 1994.
Newfoundland: with Canada, until March 31, 1949, when it became the Canadian province of Newfoundland (now named Newfoundland and Labrador).
Scotland and England: bordered each other until 1707 when they were united as Great Britain by the Acts of Union, see Anglo-Scottish border.
Japan: bordered Russia on the island of Sakhalin from 1905 until 1910, until Japan inherited the China–North Korea border and the North Korea–Russia border upon the Japanese annexation of Korea. Both Sakhalin and Korea were relinquished after Japan's defeat in World War II in 1945. (See Karafuto Prefecture and Empire of Japan).
Weihaiwei: 1898–1930, British colony on a leased territory from China's Qing dynasty. Transferred to the Republic of China in 1930.
Tasmania: bordered only by the Colony of Victoria (on Boundary Islet), until the federation of the Commonwealth of Australia in 1901.
Hong Kong: bordered China 1860–1997 as a crown colony of the United Kingdom. Transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1997.
Macau: bordered China until 1999 as a colony of Portugal. Transferred to the People's Republic of China in 1999.

References

^ "Direct Contiguity Data, 1816-2016. Version 3.2". Correlates of War Project. Retrieved 12 December 2017.
^ Austen, Ian (2022-06-14). "Canada and Denmark End Their Arctic Whisky War". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-09-13.

This page was last edited on 29 May 2024, at 11:08