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How the crowd draws

22 drawings of its land border and 54 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s France map, 25 September 2026 to 26 October 2026.

Draw Pas-de-Calais

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area6,694 km²2,585 sq mi6,031 km²2,329 sq mi9.9% smaller
Outline606 km377 mi452 km281 mi25.3% shorter
Centre2.29° E, 50.49° N2.3° E, 50.5° N2.25° E, 50.51° N2.3° E, 50.5° N4 km north-west2 mi north-west
Westernmost1.56° E, 50.40° N1.6° E, 50.4° N1.59° E, 50.39° N1.6° E, 50.4° N2 km short2 mi short
Easternmost3.19° E, 50.23° N3.2° E, 50.2° N3.17° E, 50.22° N3.2° E, 50.2° N2 km short1 mi short
Southernmost2.88° E, 50.02° N2.9° E, 50.0° N2.92° E, 50.11° N2.9° E, 50.1° N10 km short6 mi short
Northernmost2.07° E, 51.01° N2.1° E, 51.0° N2.07° E, 51.03° N2.1° E, 51.0° N2 km beyond1 mi beyond

Near the land border, 55% of the crowd’s lines run inside Pas-de-Calais. Near the coast, 72% run inland.

Borders and coast

Why two lengths?

A line’s length depends on how closely it is drawn. The game’s lines are simplified: they keep a point every few kilometres and cut across small bends. The official lengths, from the Observatoire national de la mer et du littoral (coasts, 2015 to 2017), are measured on other lines. A border measured on a finer line, following every bend of its rivers and ridges, comes out longer.

Coasts differ most, and either way. Some official coastlines follow every inlet and island (Canada’s 202,080 km); others are smoothed on purpose, crossing bays and sounds (the United States’ 19,924 km), and can come out shorter than the game’s.

Players draw against the game’s line and are scored against it, so the crowd’s length is compared with the game’s, both measured the same way. Set against an official length measured another way, the comparison would say more about the two methods than about the crowd.

Pas-de-Calais’s coast: 129 km in the game, 105 km officially.

2 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Nord301 km in the game247 km the crowd’s17.9% shorter
Somme239 km in the game142 km the crowd’s40.6% shorter
The coast129 km in the game105 km officially107 km the crowd’s17.1% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Pas-de-Calais: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Pas-de-Calais or outside it; the median over a short stretch is where the crowd puts the line there, and the real outline moved by it is the crowd’s. Where the move folds a narrow inlet over itself, the loop is cut.

The 76 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s France map, scribbles left out, the real line the game’s own. Area true to scale; the outline copies the real line’s detail, so its length changes only where the shape moves or a loop is cut.

Draw Pas-de-Calais yourself and add your line to the next update.