Countries Bordering Only One Other Country 2024
Several countries worldwide share borders with only one other nation, often leading to unique diplomatic relationships:
- Vatican City: The world's smallest country, located within Rome, Italy, with a population of around 800.
- San Marino: Also landlocked within Italy, situated on Mount Titano in Central Italy.
- Lesotho: A sovereign nation completely surrounded by South Africa, sharing a 1,115 km long border.
- Canada: Borders only the United States, including the state of Alaska and 12 other U.S. states.
- Portugal: Shares a border exclusively with Spain, approximately 764 miles long, though the exact length is debated.
- The United Kingdom and Ireland: Ireland is the only country the UK shares a land border with, though Ireland is a sovereign nation and not a UK territory.
- Korean Peninsula: North and South Korea share a border, separated by the 148-mile-long Demilitarized Zone (DMZ).
- Qatar: Borders only Saudi Arabia, about 45 miles long. It also has maritime borders with Bahrain, Iran, and the UAE.
- Denmark: Germany is its only land neighbor, with maritime borders shared with Sweden, Norway, the UK, and Greenland.
- Dominican Republic: Located on Hispaniola in the Caribbean, it shares a land border with Haiti.
- Papua New Guinea and Indonesia: Share a 512-mile-long border.
These countries' unique geographic situations influence their diplomatic, economic, and cultural interactions with their sole neighboring countries.
- List includes countries that share a land border with only one other country (but may share a maritime border with multiple countries) or which have no shared land border (islands) but share a maritime border with only one other country (for example, Sri Lanka, and island country which shares a maritime border with only India.
- Areas have been rounded to the nearest mile or kilometer. For countries whose area in miles was not given by the source, km values have been manually converted to miles.
- A borderpoint neighbor is one that does not share a natural border with a given country, but is connected via a human-engineered travel corridor such as a bridge over water or underwater tunnel. For example, the Channel Tunnel ('Chunnel'), which makes France and the United Kingdom borderpoint neighbors.
Country | Additional Details | Border Length (mi) | Borderpoint Neighbor | Neighbor | Sovereign Sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahrain | Although an island nation with no natural land borders, Bahrain maintains persistent connection to S... | Saudi Arabia | None (Bahrain is an island) | ||
| Brunei | Borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. | 237 | Malaysia | ||
| Denmark | In addition to its border with Germany, also has fixed link with Sweden across the Øresund Bridge. | Sweden | Germany | ||
| Dominican Republic | On the island of Hispaniola. | 220 | Haiti | ||
| Gambia | The Republic of the Gambia is bordered to the north, south and east by Senegal. | 460 | Senegal | ||
| Gibraltar | A British overseas territory, occupies a small peninsula and has a 1.2 km (0.75 mi) land border with... | 1 | Spain | United Kingdom | |
| Greenland | A constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland has had a border dispute with Canada rega... | 1 | Canada | Denmark | |
| Haiti | On the island of Hispaniola. | 220 | Dominican Republic | ||
| Hong Kong | Hong Kong, comprising a continental portion and more than 200 islands in the South China Sea, was fo... | 21 | China | Hong Kong | |
| Ireland | The Republic of Ireland borders the United Kingdom's Northern Ireland region on the island of Irelan... | 220 | United Kingdom | ||
| Lesotho | Lesotho is an enclave which is entirely surrounded by South Africa.
| 565 | South Africa | ||
| Liechtenstein | In addition to its land border with Austria, Liechtenstein has five bridges crossing the river Rhine... | Switzerland | Austria | ||
| Macau | Macau comprises a peninsula and one island in the South China Sea, 60 km (37 mi) west of Hong Kong, ... | 2 | China | Macau | |
| Monaco | 3 | France | |||
| Papua New Guinea | On the island of New Guinea. | 510 | Indonesia | ||
| Portugal | 754 | Spain | |||
| Qatar | The planned Qatar–Bahrain Causeway would connect Qatar to Bahrain. | 37 | Saudi Arabia | ||
| Saint Martin | The island is split between two island territories: the northern half, Saint-Martin, is a French ove... | 10 | Netherlands | France | |
| San Marino | San Marino is an enclave entirely surrounded by Italy. | 24 | Italy | ||
| Singapore | Although an island nation with no natural land borders, Singapore maintains persistent connections t... | Malaysia | None (Singapore is cut off by the Strait of Johor) | ||
| Sint Maarten | The island is split between two island territories: the northern half, Saint-Martin, is a French ove... | France | Netherlands | ||
| South Korea | On the Korean Peninsula, at the Demarcation Line. The two countries are separated by a 4 km wide Dem... | 148 | North Korea | ||
| Timor Leste | On the island of Timor. | 142 | Indonesia | ||
| United Kingdom | On the island of Ireland. The British Overseas Territories of Gibraltar and Akrotiri and Dhekelia bo... | 220 | Ireland | ||
| Vatican City | The Vatican City is an enclave entirely surrounded by Rome, Italy. | 2 | Italy |