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How the crowd draws

2,000 drawings of its land border and 2,885 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Oregon

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area250,000 km²97,000 sq mi239,000 km²92,000 sq mi4.7% smaller
Outline2,246 km1,396 mi2,141 km1,330 mi4.7% shorter
Centre120.56° W, 43.94° N120.6° W, 43.9° N120.57° W, 43.97° N120.6° W, 44.0° N4 km north2 mi north
Westernmost124.55° W, 42.84° N124.6° W, 42.8° N124.27° W, 42.85° N124.3° W, 42.8° N23 km short14 mi short
Easternmost116.47° W, 45.61° N116.5° W, 45.6° N116.67° W, 45.61° N116.7° W, 45.6° N16 km short10 mi short
Southernmost121.05° W, 41.99° N121.0° W, 42.0° N123.80° W, 42.04° N123.8° W, 42.0° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost123.47° W, 46.27° N123.5° W, 46.3° N123.56° W, 46.23° N123.6° W, 46.2° N4 km short2 mi short

Near the land border, 56% of the crowd’s lines run inside Oregon. Near the coast, 68% 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.

Oregon’s coast: 545 km in the game, 476 km officially.

4 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Washington600 km in the game569 km the crowd’s5.2% shorter
Idaho520 km in the game492 km the crowd’s5.4% shorter
California349 km in the game347 km the crowd’s0.6% shorter
Nevada241 km in the game237 km the crowd’s1.7% shorter
The coast545 km in the game476 km officially502 km the crowd’s7.9% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Oregon: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Oregon 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 4,885 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 4,885.

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