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How the crowd draws

2,257 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Hawaii

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area17,000 km²6,463 sq mi15,000 km²5,773 sq mi10.7% smaller
Outline1,348 km837 mi1,364 km848 mi1.2% longer
Centre156.34° W, 20.25° N156.3° W, 20.3° N156.20° W, 20.15° N156.2° W, 20.1° N19 km south-east12 mi south-east
Westernmost160.25° W, 21.82° N160.2° W, 21.8° N160.24° W, 21.82° N160.2° W, 21.8° N1 km short1 mi short
Easternmost154.81° W, 19.52° N154.8° W, 19.5° N154.81° W, 19.52° N154.8° W, 19.5° N1 km short0 mi short
Southernmost155.67° W, 18.92° N155.7° W, 18.9° N155.67° W, 18.92° N155.7° W, 18.9° Nthe same
Northernmost159.40° W, 22.23° N159.4° W, 22.2° N159.47° W, 22.19° N159.5° W, 22.2° N4 km short3 mi short

Near the coast, 57% run inland.

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.

Hawaii’s coast: 1,353 km in the game, 1,207 km officially.

Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
The coast1,353 km in the game1,207 km officially1,370 km the crowd’s1.3% longer

How it is measured

The crowd’s Hawaii: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Hawaii 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 2,257 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 2,257.

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