A landlocked state in the United States is any state whose territorial boundaries do not touch an ocean, gulf, or bay. All landlocked states are located among the contiguous 48 states on the North American mainland.
Hawaii is completely insular, and 22 states are coastal. Of the remaining 27 states and the District of Columbia, 16 states and the federal capital are single landlocked, 10 are double landlocked; and just one, Nebraska, is triple landlocked.
The 16 singly landlocked states, and the District of Columbia, with routes to their nearest ocean, gulf, or bay:
The 10 doubly landlocked states, with routes to their nearest ocean, gulf, or bay:
Nebraska is the only triply landlocked state. To reach an ocean, gulf, or bay from Nebraska, one must travel either south through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to the Gulf of Mexico; north through South Dakota, North Dakota and Manitoba to Hudson Bay; or west through Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon to the Pacific Ocean.
Eight states border the Great Lakes, but New York is the only one that borders both the Great Lakes and an ocean. Four of the other seven are singly landlocked; Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin are doubly landlocked. Michigan and Ohio both have water boundaries with Ontario, which bounds the Arctic Ocean. Wisconsin's territorial waters in Lake Superior, however, do not touch those of Ontario, but they form the southerly point of a three-way water boundary with Michigan and Minnesota.