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How the crowd draws

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

Draw Nordrhein-Westfalen

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area34,000 km²13,000 sq mi32,000 km²12,000 sq mi5.1% smaller
Outline1,390 km864 mi1,318 km819 mi5.2% shorter
Centre7.56° E, 51.48° N7.6° E, 51.5° N7.53° E, 51.44° N7.5° E, 51.4° N4 km south-west3 mi south-west
Westernmost5.87° E, 51.05° N5.9° E, 51.1° N5.91° E, 50.99° N5.9° E, 51.0° N3 km short2 mi short
Easternmost9.46° E, 51.86° N9.5° E, 51.9° N9.31° E, 51.90° N9.3° E, 51.9° N11 km short7 mi short
Southernmost6.41° E, 50.32° N6.4° E, 50.3° N6.78° E, 50.37° N6.8° E, 50.4° N5 km short3 mi short
Northernmost8.65° E, 52.53° N8.7° E, 52.5° N9.10° E, 52.48° N9.1° E, 52.5° N6 km short4 mi short

Near the land border, 54% of the crowd’s lines run inside Nordrhein-Westfalen.

Borders

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.

Nordrhein-Westfalen and Netherlands: 359 km in the game, 395 km officially.

5 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Niedersachsen515 km in the game508 km the crowd’s1.4% shorter
Netherlands359 km in the game395 km officially329 km the crowd’s8.4% shorter
Rheinland-Pfalz279 km in the game246 km the crowd’s11.8% shorter
Hessen247 km in the game253 km the crowd’s2.4% longer
Belgium79 km in the game67 km the crowd’s15.2% shorter

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 (0.5 MB)
Another country and GermanyFrom where are you from; no answer left outDownload (0.5 MB)
The fastest and the slowest thirdBy time spent drawingDownload (0.7 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.7 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 (2.9 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Nordrhein-Westfalen: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Nordrhein-Westfalen 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 82 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 Nordrhein-Westfalen yourself and add your line to the next update.