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How the crowd draws

1,052 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw New Hampshire

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area24,000 km²9,258 sq mi23,000 km²8,840 sq mi4.5% smaller
Outline814 km506 mi782 km486 mi3.9% shorter
Centre71.58° W, 43.68° N71.6° W, 43.7° N71.55° W, 43.72° N71.6° W, 43.7° N5 km north-east3 mi north-east
Westernmost72.56° W, 42.85° N72.6° W, 42.9° N72.51° W, 42.87° N72.5° W, 42.9° N4 km short3 mi short
Easternmost70.71° W, 43.06° N70.7° W, 43.1° N70.71° W, 43.06° N70.7° W, 43.1° N1 km short0 mi short
Southernmost71.30° W, 42.70° N71.3° W, 42.7° N71.22° W, 42.76° N71.2° W, 42.8° N7 km short5 mi short
Northernmost71.08° W, 45.31° N71.1° W, 45.3° N71.29° W, 45.30° N71.3° W, 45.3° N1 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 55% of the crowd’s lines run inside New Hampshire.

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.

New Hampshire and Canada: 66 km in the game, 93 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Vermont314 km in the game300 km the crowd’s4.5% shorter
Maine263 km in the game252 km the crowd’s4.2% shorter
Massachusetts149 km in the game152 km the crowd’s2.0% longer
Canada66 km in the game93 km officially57 km the crowd’s13.6% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s New Hampshire: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside New Hampshire 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 1,052 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 1,052.

Draw New Hampshire yourself and add your line to the next update.