← United States

How the crowd draws

1,902 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Idaho

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area216,000 km²83,000 sq mi198,000 km²76,000 sq mi8.3% smaller
Outline2,695 km1,675 mi2,682 km1,667 mi0.5% shorter
Centre114.61° W, 44.35° N114.6° W, 44.4° N114.55° W, 44.44° N114.6° W, 44.4° N10 km north-east7 mi north-east
Westernmost117.24° W, 44.40° N117.2° W, 44.4° N117.08° W, 44.33° N117.1° W, 44.3° N13 km short8 mi short
Easternmost111.05° W, 44.38° N111.0° W, 44.4° N111.07° W, 43.46° N111.1° W, 43.5° N2 km short1 mi short
Southernmost113.83° W, 41.99° N113.8° W, 42.0° N111.17° W, 42.09° N111.2° W, 42.1° N11 km short7 mi short
Northernmost116.29° W, 49.00° N116.3° W, 49.0° N116.06° W, 48.99° N116.1° W, 49.0° N1 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 59% of the crowd’s lines run inside Idaho.

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.

Idaho and Canada: 71 km in the game, 72 km officially.

7 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Montana1,029 km in the game1,085 km the crowd’s5.4% longer
Oregon516 km in the game469 km the crowd’s9.1% shorter
Washington340 km in the game333 km the crowd’s2.1% shorter
Wyoming276 km in the game283 km the crowd’s2.5% longer
Utah247 km in the game247 km the crowd’sthe same
Nevada245 km in the game231 km the crowd’s5.7% shorter
Canada71 km in the game72 km officially67 km the crowd’s5.6% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Idaho: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Idaho 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 1,902 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 1,902.

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