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How the crowd draws

1,017 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw North Dakota

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area182,000 km²70,000 sq mi174,000 km²67,000 sq mi4.2% smaller
Outline1,774 km1,102 mi1,759 km1,093 mi0.9% shorter
Centre100.47° W, 47.49° N100.5° W, 47.5° N100.46° W, 47.51° N100.5° W, 47.5° N3 km north2 mi north
Westernmost104.05° W, 48.94° N104.0° W, 48.9° N104.05° W, 48.23° N104.0° W, 48.2° Nthe same
Easternmost96.56° W, 46.06° N96.6° W, 46.1° N96.64° W, 46.32° N96.6° W, 46.3° N6 km short4 mi short
Southernmost96.57° W, 45.94° N96.6° W, 45.9° N96.70° W, 46.00° N96.7° W, 46.0° N8 km short5 mi short
Northernmost100.65° W, 49.05° N100.7° W, 49.1° N99.79° W, 49.01° N99.8° W, 49.0° N5 km short3 mi short

Near the land border, 56% of the crowd’s lines run inside North Dakota.

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.

North Dakota and Canada: 496 km in the game, 499 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
South Dakota578 km in the game571 km the crowd’s1.2% shorter
Canada496 km in the game499 km officially492 km the crowd’s0.8% shorter
Minnesota362 km in the game359 km the crowd’s0.8% shorter
Montana339 km in the game338 km the crowd’s0.3% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s North Dakota: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside North Dakota 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 1,017 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 1,017.

Draw North Dakota yourself and add your line to the next update.