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How the crowd draws

1,291 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw New Mexico

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area315,000 km²122,000 sq mi302,000 km²117,000 sq mi4.1% smaller
Outline2,377 km1,477 mi2,335 km1,451 mi1.8% shorter
Centre106.11° W, 34.41° N106.1° W, 34.4° N106.17° W, 34.44° N106.2° W, 34.4° N6 km north-west4 mi north-west
Westernmost109.05° W, 31.36° N109.0° W, 31.4° N109.07° W, 34.01° N109.1° W, 34.0° N2 km beyond1 mi beyond
Easternmost103.00° W, 36.99° N103.0° W, 37.0° N103.10° W, 36.91° N103.1° W, 36.9° N9 km short5 mi short
Southernmost109.03° W, 31.33° N109.0° W, 31.3° N108.27° W, 31.39° N108.3° W, 31.4° N6 km short4 mi short
Northernmost104.60° W, 37.01° N104.6° W, 37.0° N104.63° W, 37.00° N104.6° W, 37.0° N1 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 58% of the crowd’s lines run inside New Mexico.

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 Mexico and Mexico: 286 km in the game, 289 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Texas872 km in the game846 km the crowd’s3.0% shorter
Arizona632 km in the game629 km the crowd’s0.5% shorter
Colorado537 km in the game535 km the crowd’s0.4% shorter
Mexico286 km in the game289 km officially284 km the crowd’s0.7% shorter
Oklahoma56 km in the game46 km the crowd’s17.9% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s New Mexico: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside New Mexico 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 1,291 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 1,291.

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