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How the crowd draws

191 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s Germany map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Bayern

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area70,000 km²27,000 sq mi67,000 km²26,000 sq mi5.4% smaller
Outline2,043 km1,270 mi1,876 km1,165 mi8.2% shorter
Centre11.43° E, 48.94° N11.4° E, 48.9° N11.48° E, 48.94° N11.5° E, 48.9° N4 km east2 mi east
Westernmost8.98° E, 50.05° N9.0° E, 50.1° N9.22° E, 49.91° N9.2° E, 49.9° N17 km short11 mi short
Easternmost13.84° E, 48.70° N13.8° E, 48.7° N13.74° E, 48.53° N13.7° E, 48.5° N7 km short4 mi short
Southernmost10.23° E, 47.27° N10.2° E, 47.3° N10.37° E, 47.41° N10.4° E, 47.4° N16 km short10 mi short
Northernmost10.11° E, 50.56° N10.1° E, 50.6° N11.42° E, 50.49° N11.4° E, 50.5° N8 km short5 mi short

Near the land border, 56% of the crowd’s lines run inside Bayern.

Borders

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 states' statistics offices and governments (borders; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's open-sea coast), 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.

Bayern and Austria: 709 km in the game, 818 km officially.

6 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Austria709 km in the game818 km officially703 km the crowd’s0.8% shorter
Baden-Württemberg653 km in the game556 km the crowd’s14.9% shorter
Thüringen313 km in the game282 km the crowd’s9.9% shorter
Czechia298 km in the game359 km officially293 km the crowd’s1.7% shorter
Hessen231 km in the game190 km the crowd’s17.7% shorter
Sachsen28 km in the game26 km the crowd’s7.1% shorter

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn Germany →
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the stateDownload (0.6 MB)
Another country and GermanyFrom where are you from; no answer left outDownload (0.6 MB)
The fastest and the slowest thirdBy time spent drawingDownload (0.8 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.8 MB)
Where drawings start and endStarts teal, ends pink, piled up blackDownload (0.2 MB)
The drawings stacked as blocksWhere many drawings pass, the stack growsDownload (2.9 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Bayern: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Bayern 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 191 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s Germany 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.

Measuring how far the crowd moves the centre was Matt Forrest’s idea (forrest.nyc).

Draw Bayern yourself and add your line to the next update.