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How the crowd draws

1,894 drawings of its land border and 2,035 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw New Jersey

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area20,000 km²7,773 sq mi18,000 km²7,013 sq mi9.8% smaller
Outline791 km492 mi751 km467 mi5.0% shorter
Centre74.66° W, 40.18° N74.7° W, 40.2° N74.67° W, 40.20° N74.7° W, 40.2° N2 km north1 mi north
Westernmost75.56° W, 39.63° N75.6° W, 39.6° N75.56° W, 39.60° N75.6° W, 39.6° Nthe same
Easternmost73.90° W, 40.98° N73.9° W, 41.0° N73.94° W, 40.98° N73.9° W, 41.0° N3 km short2 mi short
Southernmost74.93° W, 38.93° N74.9° W, 38.9° N74.96° W, 38.95° N75.0° W, 38.9° N2 km short1 mi short
Northernmost74.70° W, 41.36° N74.7° W, 41.4° N74.72° W, 41.30° N74.7° W, 41.3° N6 km short4 mi short

Near the land border, 60% of the crowd’s lines run inside New Jersey. Near the coast, 67% 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.

New Jersey’s coast: 357 km in the game, 209 km officially.

3 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Pennsylvania261 km in the game239 km the crowd’s8.4% shorter
New York135 km in the game127 km the crowd’s5.9% shorter
Delaware26 km in the game25 km the crowd’s3.8% shorter
The coast357 km in the game209 km officially348 km the crowd’s2.5% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s New Jersey: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside New Jersey 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 3,929 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 3,929.

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