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How the crowd draws

664 drawings of its land border and 2,140 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Rhode Island

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area2,819 km²1,088 sq mi2,729 km²1,054 sq mi3.2% smaller
Outline413 km257 mi411 km255 mi0.6% shorter
Centre71.55° W, 41.68° N71.6° W, 41.7° N71.55° W, 41.68° N71.5° W, 41.7° N1 km east0 mi east
Westernmost71.86° W, 41.32° N71.9° W, 41.3° N71.85° W, 41.32° N71.9° W, 41.3° Nthe same
Easternmost71.12° W, 41.50° N71.1° W, 41.5° N71.12° W, 41.50° N71.1° W, 41.5° Nthe same
Southernmost71.55° W, 41.15° N71.6° W, 41.2° N71.55° W, 41.15° N71.6° W, 41.2° Nthe same
Northernmost71.41° W, 42.02° N71.4° W, 42.0° N71.39° W, 42.02° N71.4° W, 42.0° Nthe same

Near the land border, 53% of the crowd’s lines run inside Rhode Island. Near the coast, 56% 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.

Rhode Island’s coast: 235 km in the game, 64 km officially.

2 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Massachusetts101 km in the game100 km the crowd’s1.0% shorter
Connecticut80 km in the game78 km the crowd’s2.5% shorter
The coast235 km in the game64 km officially233 km the crowd’s0.9% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Rhode Island: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Rhode Island 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 2,804 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 2,804.

Draw Rhode Island yourself and add your line to the next update.