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How the crowd draws

21 drawings of its land border and 37 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Mexico map, 30 September 2026 to 28 October 2026.

Draw Chiapas

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area74,000 km²28,000 sq mi76,000 km²29,000 sq mi3.1% bigger
Outline1,606 km998 mi1,662 km1,033 mi3.5% longer
Centre92.47° W, 16.48° N92.5° W, 16.5° N92.48° W, 16.43° N92.5° W, 16.4° N6 km south4 mi south
Westernmost94.14° W, 16.46° N94.1° W, 16.5° N94.20° W, 16.45° N94.2° W, 16.5° N6 km beyond4 mi beyond
Easternmost90.37° W, 16.37° N90.4° W, 16.4° N90.46° W, 16.11° N90.5° W, 16.1° N9 km short6 mi short
Southernmost92.22° W, 14.53° N92.2° W, 14.5° N92.21° W, 14.51° N92.2° W, 14.5° N3 km beyond2 mi beyond
Northernmost93.28° W, 17.98° N93.3° W, 18.0° N93.13° W, 17.89° N93.1° W, 17.9° N10 km short6 mi short

Near the land border, 51% of the crowd’s lines run inside Chiapas. Near the coast, 42% 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 INEGI (coasts, islands left out), 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.

Chiapas’s coast: 246 km in the game, 266 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Guatemala638 km in the game594 km the crowd’s6.9% shorter
Tabasco596 km in the game685 km the crowd’s14.9% longer
Oaxaca143 km in the game153 km the crowd’s7.0% longer
Veracruz40 km in the game38 km the crowd’s5.0% shorter
The coast246 km in the game266 km officially246 km the crowd’sthe same

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn Mexico →
Not enough drawings yet
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the state15 of 20 drawings needed on each side
Not enough drawings yet
Another country and MexicoFrom where are you from; no answer left out4 of 10 drawings from another country needed
The fastest and the slowest thirdBy time spent drawingDownload (0.3 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.3 MB)
Where drawings start and endStarts teal, ends pink, piled up blackDownload (0.1 MB)
The drawings stacked as blocksWhere many drawings pass, the stack growsDownload (1.5 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Chiapas: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Chiapas 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 58 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s Mexico 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 Chiapas yourself and add your line to the next update.