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How the crowd draws

2,224 drawings of its land border and 2,901 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Mississippi

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area124,000 km²48,000 sq mi118,000 km²45,000 sq mi4.6% smaller
Outline2,184 km1,357 mi1,915 km1,190 mi12.3% shorter
Centre89.67° W, 32.74° N89.7° W, 32.7° N89.71° W, 32.63° N89.7° W, 32.6° N13 km south8 mi south
Westernmost91.64° W, 31.25° N91.6° W, 31.2° N91.60° W, 31.24° N91.6° W, 31.2° N4 km short2 mi short
Easternmost88.10° W, 34.89° N88.1° W, 34.9° N88.29° W, 34.83° N88.3° W, 34.8° N17 km short11 mi short
Southernmost89.54° W, 30.18° N89.5° W, 30.2° N89.45° W, 30.18° N89.4° W, 30.2° Nthe same
Northernmost89.20° W, 35.00° N89.2° W, 35.0° N90.02° W, 34.89° N90.0° W, 34.9° N12 km short8 mi short

Near the land border, 58% of the crowd’s lines run inside Mississippi. Near the coast, 28% 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.

Mississippi’s coast: 147 km in the game, 71 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Louisiana817 km in the game701 km the crowd’s14.2% shorter
Arkansas551 km in the game439 km the crowd’s20.3% shorter
Alabama521 km in the game501 km the crowd’s3.8% shorter
Tennessee190 km in the game180 km the crowd’s5.3% shorter
The coast147 km in the game71 km officially124 km the crowd’s15.6% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Mississippi: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Mississippi 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 5,125 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 5,125.

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