How the crowd draws

25 drawings of its land border and 30 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s United Kingdom map, 28 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Essex

RealThe crowd’s

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026

	The real one	The crowd’s
Area	3,930 km²1,517 sq mi	3,653 km²1,410 sq mi7.1% smaller
Outline	499 km310 mi	355 km221 mi28.9% shorter
Centre	0.57° E, 51.78° N0.6° E, 51.8° N	0.59° E, 51.78° N0.6° E, 51.8° N1 km east1 mi east
Westernmost	0.02° W, 51.70° N0.0° W, 51.7° N	0.01° E, 51.73° N0.0° E, 51.7° N2 km short1 mi short
Easternmost	1.30° E, 51.94° N1.3° E, 51.9° N	1.25° E, 51.86° N1.3° E, 51.9° N3 km short2 mi short
Southernmost	0.37° E, 51.45° N0.4° E, 51.4° N	0.34° E, 51.46° N0.3° E, 51.5° N1 km short1 mi short
Northernmost	0.28° E, 52.09° N0.3° E, 52.1° N	0.27° E, 52.05° N0.3° E, 52.1° N4 km short3 mi short

Near the land border, 58% of the crowd’s lines run inside Essex. Near the coast, 63% run inland.

Borders and coast

5 neighbours

Border with	In the game	The crowd’s
Suffolk	85 km in the game	76 km the crowd’s10.6% shorter
Greater London	59 km in the game	60 km the crowd’s1.7% longer
Hertfordshire	58 km in the game	52 km the crowd’s10.3% shorter
Cambridgeshire	41 km in the game	27 km the crowd’s34.1% shorter
Kent	37 km in the game	42 km the crowd’s13.5% longer
The coast	250 km in the game	108 km the crowd’s56.8% shorter

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn UK →

The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the countyDownload (0.2 MB)

Not enough drawings yet

Another country and the UKFrom 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 (1.7 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Essex: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Essex 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 55 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s United Kingdom 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 Essex yourself and add your line to the next update.