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How the crowd draws

1,843 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Arizona

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area296,000 km²114,000 sq mi283,000 km²109,000 sq mi4.2% smaller
Outline2,325 km1,445 mi2,258 km1,403 mi2.9% shorter
Centre111.66° W, 34.28° N111.7° W, 34.3° N111.69° W, 34.24° N111.7° W, 34.2° N6 km south-west4 mi south-west
Westernmost114.81° W, 32.56° N114.8° W, 32.6° N114.77° W, 32.52° N114.8° W, 32.5° N4 km short2 mi short
Easternmost109.04° W, 36.96° N109.0° W, 37.0° N109.10° W, 32.51° N109.1° W, 32.5° N5 km short3 mi short
Southernmost109.08° W, 31.33° N109.1° W, 31.3° N110.55° W, 31.37° N110.6° W, 31.4° N4 km short2 mi short
Northernmost111.56° W, 37.03° N111.6° W, 37.0° N113.95° W, 36.93° N114.0° W, 36.9° N10 km short6 mi short

Near the land border, 60% of the crowd’s lines run inside Arizona.

Borders

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 NOAA (coasts, 1975), the International Boundary Commission (Canada) and the USGS (Mexico), 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. Great Lakes shores are not in NOAA's figures.

The boundary commission’s lengths with Canada include the line through the Great Lakes and the straits, which the game does not draw; where that is most of a state’s border (Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania), no official length is shown.

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.

Arizona and Mexico: 596 km in the game, 599 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
New Mexico630 km in the game625 km the crowd’s0.8% shorter
Mexico596 km in the game599 km officially580 km the crowd’s2.7% shorter
Utah444 km in the game434 km the crowd’s2.3% shorter
California349 km in the game323 km the crowd’s7.4% shorter
Nevada313 km in the game302 km the crowd’s3.5% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Arizona: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Arizona 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 1,843 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s US 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. The map lays the 1,000 most recent; the heat map, the crowd’s shape and every figure use all 1,843.

Draw Arizona yourself and add your line to the next update.