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How the crowd draws

24 drawings of its land border and 35 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Mexico map, 18 October 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Tamaulipas

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area80,000 km²31,000 sq mi82,000 km²32,000 sq mi2.4% bigger
Outline2,224 km1,382 mi2,316 km1,439 mi4.1% longer
Centre98.64° W, 24.28° N98.6° W, 24.3° N98.57° W, 24.31° N98.6° W, 24.3° N8 km east5 mi east
Westernmost100.14° W, 23.34° N100.1° W, 23.3° N99.93° W, 23.22° N99.9° W, 23.2° N22 km short13 mi short
Easternmost97.15° W, 25.94° N97.1° W, 25.9° N97.14° W, 25.95° N97.1° W, 25.9° N1 km beyond1 mi beyond
Southernmost97.84° W, 22.21° N97.8° W, 22.2° N98.29° W, 22.20° N98.3° W, 22.2° N1 km beyond1 mi beyond
Northernmost99.73° W, 27.68° N99.7° W, 27.7° N99.72° W, 27.64° N99.7° W, 27.6° N4 km short2 mi short

Near the land border, 46% of the crowd’s lines run inside Tamaulipas. Near the coast, 40% 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.

Tamaulipas’s coast: 434 km in the game, 433 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Nuevo León883 km in the game939 km the crowd’s6.3% longer
United States of America583 km in the game584 km the crowd’s0.2% longer
San Luis Potosí296 km in the game330 km the crowd’s11.5% longer
Veracruz154 km in the game156 km the crowd’s1.3% longer
The coast434 km in the game433 km officially432 km the crowd’s0.5% shorter

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 state17 of 20 drawings needed on each side
Not enough drawings yet
Another country and MexicoFrom where are you from; no answer left out9 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 Tamaulipas: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Tamaulipas 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 59 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 Tamaulipas yourself and add your line to the next update.