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How the crowd draws

1,798 drawings of its land border and 2,577 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s US map, 24 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Virginia

In numbers

Last updated on 27 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area104,000 km²40,000 sq mi103,000 km²40,000 sq mi1.4% smaller
Outline2,719 km1,690 mi2,376 km1,476 mi12.6% shorter
Centre78.82° W, 37.53° N78.8° W, 37.5° N78.65° W, 37.55° N78.7° W, 37.6° N15 km east9 mi east
Westernmost83.67° W, 36.60° N83.7° W, 36.6° N83.68° W, 36.60° N83.7° W, 36.6° N1 km beyond1 mi beyond
Easternmost75.24° W, 38.03° N75.2° W, 38.0° N75.24° W, 38.01° N75.2° W, 38.0° N1 km beyond0 mi beyond
Southernmost80.13° W, 36.54° N80.1° W, 36.5° N75.85° W, 36.55° N75.9° W, 36.6° N1 km short1 mi short
Northernmost78.35° W, 39.46° N78.3° W, 39.5° N78.35° W, 39.48° N78.4° W, 39.5° N1 km beyond1 mi beyond

Near the land border, 53% of the crowd’s lines run inside Virginia. Near the coast, 47% 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.

Virginia’s coast: 1,014 km in the game, 180 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
West Virginia678 km in the game683 km the crowd’s0.7% longer
North Carolina519 km in the game516 km the crowd’s0.6% shorter
Kentucky201 km in the game200 km the crowd’s0.5% shorter
Tennessee186 km in the game190 km the crowd’s2.2% longer
Maryland181 km in the game171 km the crowd’s5.5% shorter
The coast1,014 km in the game180 km officially652 km the crowd’s35.7% shorter

How it is measured

The crowd’s Virginia: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Virginia 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 4,375 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 4,375.

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