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How the crowd draws

1,298 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Montana

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area387,000 km²150,000 sq mi365,000 km²141,000 sq mi5.8% smaller
Outline2,929 km1,820 mi2,893 km1,797 mi1.2% shorter
Centre109.66° W, 47.12° N109.7° W, 47.1° N109.56° W, 47.07° N109.6° W, 47.1° N9 km south-east6 mi south-east
Westernmost116.05° W, 48.01° N116.0° W, 48.0° N115.89° W, 48.91° N115.9° W, 48.9° N12 km short7 mi short
Easternmost104.04° W, 45.02° N104.0° W, 45.0° N104.05° W, 46.10° N104.0° W, 46.1° Nthe same
Southernmost112.85° W, 44.36° N112.9° W, 44.4° N111.07° W, 44.50° N111.1° W, 44.5° N15 km short9 mi short
Northernmost110.04° W, 49.15° N110.0° W, 49.2° N112.99° W, 48.99° N113.0° W, 49.0° N18 km short11 mi short

Near the land border, 63% of the crowd’s lines run inside Montana.

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.

Montana and Canada: 523 km in the game, 877 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Idaho1,030 km in the game1,008 km the crowd’s2.1% shorter
Wyoming606 km in the game615 km the crowd’s1.5% longer
Canada523 km in the game877 km officially511 km the crowd’s2.3% shorter
North Dakota343 km in the game341 km the crowd’s0.6% shorter
South Dakota107 km in the game101 km the crowd’s5.6% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Montana: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Montana 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 1,298 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 1,298.

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