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How the crowd draws

2,119 drawings of its land border and 2,904 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Minnesota

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area217,000 km²84,000 sq mi218,000 km²84,000 sq mi0.6% bigger
Outline2,624 km1,631 mi2,634 km1,637 mi0.4% longer
Centre94.31° W, 46.29° N94.3° W, 46.3° N94.27° W, 46.37° N94.3° W, 46.4° N10 km north6 mi north
Westernmost97.24° W, 48.97° N97.2° W, 49.0° N97.15° W, 48.94° N97.1° W, 48.9° N7 km short4 mi short
Easternmost89.50° W, 48.01° N89.5° W, 48.0° N89.41° W, 48.01° N89.4° W, 48.0° N6 km beyond4 mi beyond
Southernmost91.23° W, 43.50° N91.2° W, 43.5° N91.32° W, 43.55° N91.3° W, 43.5° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost95.15° W, 49.38° N95.2° W, 49.4° N95.15° W, 49.38° N95.2° W, 49.4° Nthe same

Near the land border, 51% of the crowd’s lines run inside Minnesota. Near the coast, 32% 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.

Minnesota and Canada: 823 km in the game, 880 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Canada823 km in the game880 km officially862 km the crowd’s4.7% longer
Wisconsin504 km in the game484 km the crowd’s4.0% shorter
Iowa424 km in the game423 km the crowd’s0.2% shorter
North Dakota362 km in the game353 km the crowd’s2.5% shorter
South Dakota295 km in the game282 km the crowd’s4.4% shorter
The coast240 km in the game235 km the crowd’s2.1% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Minnesota: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Minnesota 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 5,023 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 5,023.

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