The countries with the most neighbours
China and Russia both border fourteen countries, Brazil touches every South American nation but two, and two countries are landlocked twice over.
China and Russia are tied at the top of this list with fourteen land neighbours each, which feels right until you try to name them. Most people get eight or nine of China's and then stall somewhere around the Central Asian republics.
China borders Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Vietnam. Russia borders Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mongolia, North Korea, Norway, Poland and Ukraine — with Lithuania and Poland touching only the Kaliningrad exclave, which is Russian territory with no land connection to Russia itself.
The full top eight
Number of bordering countries, as used in the game:
- China — 14
- Russia — 14
- Brazil — 10
- DR Congo — 9
- Germany — 9
- Austria — 8
- Turkey — 8
- Serbia — 8
Brazil is the South American outlier
Brazil borders ten countries — every nation in South America except Chile and Ecuador. It occupies nearly half the continent, so almost everyone else is a neighbour by default. Its border with Bolivia alone runs longer than the entire eastern seaboard of the United States.
DR Congo does something similar in central Africa with nine neighbours, and Germany and Austria do it in miniature. Europe's high counts come from the opposite cause to Brazil's: not one enormous country, but many small ones packed together. Austria is smaller than South Carolina and still touches eight other states.
Landlocked, and landlocked twice
Forty-four countries are landlocked. Being surrounded by neighbours is the whole definition, so most of them score well in this category — Zambia has eight, Austria and Serbia eight each, Hungary seven.
Two go further. Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan are doubly landlocked: every country they touch is itself landlocked, so you must cross at least two international borders to reach the sea from either. Liechtenstein sits between Switzerland and Austria; Uzbekistan is ringed by Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan.
The zeros, and the near-zeros
At the bottom are the island nations: Japan, Iceland, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, Madagascar, Cuba, the Philippines and dozens of Pacific and Caribbean states all have no land border at all.
Just above them sit the countries with exactly one neighbour, which are often more surprising than the zeros. Denmark's only land border is with Germany. Portugal's only neighbour is Spain. Canada's only neighbour is the United States — and that single border, at 8,893 kilometres including Alaska, is the longest between any two countries on Earth. South Korea has one neighbour, and it is North Korea.
The strangest borders on the list
The shortest international land border in the world runs about 85 metres, between Spain and Morocco at the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera — a rocky outcrop joined to the African mainland by a sand isthmus. You could walk its length in under a minute.
France has eight neighbours in Europe, and eleven once you count its overseas departments: French Guiana borders Brazil and Suriname, and the island of Saint Martin is split with the Netherlands. It is the only European country that borders Brazil.
How to guess well
Ask first whether the country is an island. If it is, the answer is zero and only another island can tie it. Then ask whether it is in Europe, Central Africa or Central Asia — the three regions where countries are packed tightly enough to rack up high counts.
Then watch for the two traps. Huge countries are not automatically high: Australia and Canada are among the largest on Earth and score zero and one. And small European countries are not automatically low: Austria, Serbia and Hungary all beat far bigger nations.