← United States

How the crowd draws

3,082 drawings of its land border and 2,517 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Florida

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area151,000 km²58,000 sq mi156,000 km²60,000 sq mi3.3% bigger
Outline3,275 km2,035 mi2,611 km1,622 mi20.3% shorter
Centre82.47° W, 28.64° N82.5° W, 28.6° N82.65° W, 28.76° N82.7° W, 28.8° N23 km north-west14 mi north-west
Westernmost87.63° W, 30.86° N87.6° W, 30.9° N87.59° W, 30.36° N87.6° W, 30.4° N4 km short3 mi short
Easternmost80.03° W, 26.78° N80.0° W, 26.8° N80.26° W, 26.22° N80.3° W, 26.2° N23 km short14 mi short
Southernmost80.65° W, 24.90° N80.6° W, 24.9° N81.09° W, 25.10° N81.1° W, 25.1° N22 km short14 mi short
Northernmost86.10° W, 31.01° N86.1° W, 31.0° N85.05° W, 30.92° N85.1° W, 30.9° N10 km short6 mi short

Near the land border, 44% of the crowd’s lines run inside Florida. Near the coast, 46% 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 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.

Florida’s coast: 2,530 km in the game, 2,173 km officially.

2 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Georgia441 km in the game377 km the crowd’s14.5% shorter
Alabama353 km in the game358 km the crowd’s1.4% longer
The coast2,530 km in the game2,173 km officially1,901 km the crowd’s24.9% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Florida: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Florida 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 5,599 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 5,599.

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