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How the crowd draws

26 drawings of its land border and 54 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Spain map, 5 October 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Cantabria

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area5,308 km²2,049 sq mi4,766 km²1,840 sq mi10.2% smaller
Outline622 km387 mi550 km342 mi11.5% shorter
Centre4.03° W, 43.20° N4.0° W, 43.2° N4.01° W, 43.20° N4.0° W, 43.2° N2 km east1 mi east
Westernmost4.85° W, 43.13° N4.9° W, 43.1° N4.77° W, 43.13° N4.8° W, 43.1° N6 km short4 mi short
Easternmost3.15° W, 43.32° N3.2° W, 43.3° N3.16° W, 43.35° N3.2° W, 43.4° N1 km short0 mi short
Southernmost3.97° W, 42.76° N4.0° W, 42.8° N4.06° W, 42.77° N4.1° W, 42.8° N1 km short1 mi short
Northernmost3.59° W, 43.51° N3.6° W, 43.5° N3.62° W, 43.45° N3.6° W, 43.4° N7 km short4 mi short

Near the land border, 52% of the crowd’s lines run inside Cantabria. Near the coast, 70% 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 Instituto Geográfico Nacional, via INE (coasts, 2008; islands left out on the mainland), 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.

Cantabria’s coast: 248 km in the game, 284 km officially.

3 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Castilla y León310 km in the game295 km the crowd’s4.8% shorter
País Vasco73 km in the game86 km the crowd’s17.8% longer
Asturias58 km in the game66 km the crowd’s13.8% longer
The coast248 km in the game284 km officially163 km the crowd’s34.3% shorter

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn Spain →
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the regionDownload (0.3 MB)
Another country and SpainFrom where are you from; no answer left outDownload (0.3 MB)
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 (1.4 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Cantabria: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Cantabria 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 80 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s Spain 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 Cantabria yourself and add your line to the next update.