Political boundaries between the United Kingdom and neighboring territories
The following is a list of maritime and land borders of the UK and its overseas territories:
Country or territory (Territories without full sovereignty[1] in italics)
No. of land border neighbours
No. of maritime boundary neighbours
Total no. of unique neighbours
Neighbouring countries and territories (Territories without full sovereignty[1] in italics) (L) = share only land borders (M) = share only maritime boundaries blank = share land borders and maritime boundaries
^ abThe concept of state sovereignty is somewhat imprecise and there are disagreements about whether certain territories are sovereign. There are currently 195 states that are generally regarded as "fully" sovereign: this includes the 193 member states of the United Nations plus the observer states of Vatican City and the State of Palestine. Some of these states have under their jurisdiction territories, dependencies, or collectivities that are clearly non-sovereign geographical areas. These territories are generally regarded as being subsumed within the overarching sovereignty of the governing state. For example, the United Kingdom holds sovereignty over the territory of Gibraltar, even though Gibraltar is not considered to be part of the United Kingdom. There are a few territories in the world that are neither clearly sovereign nor clearly subsumed under another state's sovereignty. Often, these territories have declared themselves to be sovereign, but they are either not widely recognized as such or lack some of the necessary conditions for sovereign statehood. In these cases, explanatory footnotes indicate how the territory is treated for the purposes of this list.
^ abThis territory is not sovereign, but is a country within the Kingdom of Denmark. For purposes of this list, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland are considered constituent parts of one sovereign state.
^ abThis territory is not sovereign, but is an overseas collectivity of France, and as such it is part of the sovereign territory of France.
^This territory is not sovereign, but is an insular area of the United States. U.S. territories are considered to be part of the sovereign territory of the United States.