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How the crowd draws

1,668 drawings of its land border and 1,120 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Maryland

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area27,000 km²10,000 sq mi27,000 km²10,000 sq mi2.0% smaller
Outline2,027 km1,260 mi1,918 km1,192 mi5.4% shorter
Centre76.77° W, 39.04° N76.8° W, 39.0° N76.69° W, 39.07° N76.7° W, 39.1° N7 km east4 mi east
Westernmost79.49° W, 39.21° N79.5° W, 39.2° N79.43° W, 39.68° N79.4° W, 39.7° N5 km short3 mi short
Easternmost75.05° W, 38.45° N75.1° W, 38.5° N75.04° W, 38.46° N75.0° W, 38.5° N1 km beyond0 mi beyond
Southernmost75.89° W, 37.92° N75.9° W, 37.9° N75.86° W, 37.94° N75.9° W, 37.9° N3 km short2 mi short
Northernmost77.46° W, 39.74° N77.5° W, 39.7° N77.27° W, 39.76° N77.3° W, 39.8° N3 km beyond2 mi beyond

Near the land border, 50% of the crowd’s lines run inside Maryland. Near the coast, 57% 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.

Maryland’s coast: 1,058 km in the game, 50 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Pennsylvania313 km in the game312 km the crowd’s0.3% shorter
West Virginia306 km in the game286 km the crowd’s6.5% shorter
Delaware197 km in the game196 km the crowd’s0.5% shorter
Virginia195 km in the game188 km the crowd’s3.6% shorter
The coast1,058 km in the game50 km officially973 km the crowd’s8.0% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Maryland: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Maryland 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 2,788 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 2,788.

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