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How the crowd draws

112 drawings of its land border and 205 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Germany map, 25 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Niedersachsen

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area48,000 km²18,000 sq mi45,000 km²17,000 sq mi5.7% smaller
Outline1,735 km1,078 mi1,617 km1,005 mi6.8% shorter
Centre9.17° E, 52.76° N9.2° E, 52.8° N9.19° E, 52.73° N9.2° E, 52.7° N4 km south2 mi south
Westernmost6.68° E, 52.55° N6.7° E, 52.6° N6.98° E, 52.66° N7.0° E, 52.7° N20 km short13 mi short
Easternmost11.59° E, 53.03° N11.6° E, 53.0° N11.45° E, 53.03° N11.4° E, 53.0° N9 km short6 mi short
Southernmost9.73° E, 51.30° N9.7° E, 51.3° N9.60° E, 51.37° N9.6° E, 51.4° N8 km short5 mi short
Northernmost8.69° E, 53.89° N8.7° E, 53.9° N9.13° E, 53.78° N9.1° E, 53.8° N12 km short7 mi short

Near the land border, 57% of the crowd’s lines run inside Niedersachsen. Near the coast, 70% 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 the states' statistics offices and governments (borders; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's open-sea coast), 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.

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.

Niedersachsen and Netherlands: 175 km in the game, 189 km officially.

10 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Nordrhein-Westfalen507 km in the game426 km the crowd’s16.0% shorter
Sachsen-Anhalt305 km in the game308 km the crowd’s1.0% longer
Netherlands175 km in the game189 km officially147 km the crowd’s16.0% shorter
Hessen141 km in the game110 km the crowd’s22.0% shorter
Bremen119 km in the game–
Thüringen92 km in the game89 km the crowd’s3.3% shorter
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern72 km in the game82 km the crowd’s13.9% longer
Hamburg67 km in the game67 km the crowd’sthe same
Brandenburg29 km in the game25 km the crowd’s13.8% shorter
Schleswig-Holstein21 km in the game20 km the crowd’s4.8% shorter
The coast388 km in the game396 km the crowd’s2.1% longer

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn Germany →
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the stateDownload (0.6 MB)
Another country and GermanyFrom where are you from; no answer left outDownload (0.6 MB)
The fastest and the slowest thirdBy time spent drawingDownload (0.8 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.8 MB)
Where drawings start and endStarts teal, ends pink, piled up blackDownload (0.2 MB)
The drawings stacked as blocksWhere many drawings pass, the stack growsDownload (1.7 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Niedersachsen: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Niedersachsen 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 317 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s Germany 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.

Measuring how far the crowd moves the centre was Matt Forrest’s idea (forrest.nyc).

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