← Germany

How the crowd draws

76 drawings of its land border, from memory on Borderline’s Germany map, 28 September 2026 to 27 October 2026.

Draw Rheinland-Pfalz

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area20,000 km²7,640 sq mi19,000 km²7,211 sq mi5.6% smaller
Outline998 km620 mi1,000 km621 mi0.2% longer
Centre7.45° E, 49.91° N7.5° E, 49.9° N7.45° E, 49.89° N7.4° E, 49.9° N3 km south2 mi south
Westernmost6.11° E, 50.06° N6.1° E, 50.1° N6.13° E, 50.07° N6.1° E, 50.1° N1 km short1 mi short
Easternmost8.51° E, 49.43° N8.5° E, 49.4° N8.50° E, 49.43° N8.5° E, 49.4° Nthe same
Southernmost8.20° E, 48.97° N8.2° E, 49.0° N8.21° E, 49.00° N8.2° E, 49.0° N4 km short2 mi short
Northernmost7.79° E, 50.94° N7.8° E, 50.9° N7.84° E, 50.92° N7.8° E, 50.9° N2 km short1 mi short

Near the land border, 56% of the crowd’s lines run inside Rheinland-Pfalz.

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.

Rheinland-Pfalz and Luxembourg: 115 km in the game, 126 km officially.

7 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Nordrhein-Westfalen280 km in the game264 km the crowd’s5.7% shorter
Hessen251 km in the game276 km the crowd’s10.0% longer
Saarland187 km in the game193 km the crowd’s3.2% longer
Luxembourg115 km in the game126 km officially100 km the crowd’s13.0% shorter
Baden-Württemberg99 km in the game91 km the crowd’s8.1% shorter
France84 km in the game112 km officially86 km the crowd’s2.4% longer
Belgium48 km in the game58 km officially54 km the crowd’s12.5% 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 (0.5 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 (2.3 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Rheinland-Pfalz: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Rheinland-Pfalz 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 76 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 Rheinland-Pfalz yourself and add your line to the next update.