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How the crowd draws

23 drawings of its land border and 34 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Mexico map, 18 October 2026 to 27 October 2026.

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area79,000 km²30,000 sq mi71,000 km²28,000 sq mi9.7% smaller
Outline2,858 km1,776 mi2,901 km1,803 mi1.5% longer
Centre103.62° W, 20.58° N103.6° W, 20.6° N103.64° W, 20.58° N103.6° W, 20.6° N3 km west2 mi west
Westernmost105.69° W, 20.40° N105.7° W, 20.4° N105.58° W, 20.42° N105.6° W, 20.4° N12 km short8 mi short
Easternmost101.52° W, 21.79° N101.5° W, 21.8° N101.69° W, 21.31° N101.7° W, 21.3° N18 km short11 mi short
Southernmost103.15° W, 18.93° N103.1° W, 18.9° N103.46° W, 18.99° N103.5° W, 19.0° N7 km short4 mi short
Northernmost103.91° W, 22.75° N103.9° W, 22.7° N103.78° W, 22.70° N103.8° W, 22.7° N6 km short3 mi short

Near the land border, 58% of the crowd’s lines run inside Jalisco. Near the coast, 65% 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.

Jalisco’s coast: 285 km in the game, 351 km officially.

6 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Zacatecas1,163 km in the game1,092 km the crowd’s6.1% shorter
Nayarit566 km in the game557 km the crowd’s1.6% shorter
Michoacán491 km in the game450 km the crowd’s8.4% shorter
Guanajuato262 km in the game277 km the crowd’s5.7% longer
Colima257 km in the game294 km the crowd’s14.4% longer
Aguascalientes164 km in the game247 km the crowd’s50.6% longer
The coast285 km in the game351 km officially277 km the crowd’s2.8% shorter
Not enough drawings yet
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the state16 of 20 drawings needed on each side
Not enough drawings yet
Another country and MexicoFrom where are you from; no answer left out3 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 (0.2 MB)
The drawings stacked as blocksWhere many drawings pass, the stack growsDownload (1.7 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Jalisco: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Jalisco 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 57 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 Jalisco yourself and add your line to the next update.