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How the crowd draws

2,857 drawings of its land border and 3,291 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Texas

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area690,000 km²266,000 sq mi686,000 km²265,000 sq mi0.5% smaller
Outline5,722 km3,556 mi4,888 km3,037 mi14.6% shorter
Centre99.33° W, 31.46° N99.3° W, 31.5° N99.33° W, 31.36° N99.3° W, 31.4° N12 km south7 mi south
Westernmost106.64° W, 31.89° N106.6° W, 31.9° N106.61° W, 31.89° N106.6° W, 31.9° N4 km short2 mi short
Easternmost93.52° W, 31.04° N93.5° W, 31.0° N93.82° W, 29.66° N93.8° W, 29.7° N29 km short18 mi short
Southernmost97.38° W, 25.84° N97.4° W, 25.8° N97.39° W, 25.89° N97.4° W, 25.9° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost101.46° W, 36.51° N101.5° W, 36.5° N102.87° W, 36.36° N102.9° W, 36.4° N17 km short10 mi short

Near the land border, 56% of the crowd’s lines run inside Texas. Near the coast, 31% 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.

Texas and Mexico: 1,511 km in the game, 1,997 km officially.

Texas’s coast: 1,720 km in the game, 591 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Mexico1,511 km in the game1,997 km officially1,471 km the crowd’s2.6% shorter
Oklahoma1,255 km in the game1,205 km the crowd’s4.0% shorter
New Mexico872 km in the game836 km the crowd’s4.1% shorter
Louisiana434 km in the game418 km the crowd’s3.7% shorter
Arkansas122 km in the game114 km the crowd’s6.6% shorter
The coast1,720 km in the game591 km officially991 km the crowd’s42.4% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Texas: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Texas 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 6,148 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 6,148.

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