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How the crowd draws

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

Draw Sachsen

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area18,000 km²7,095 sq mi19,000 km²7,176 sq mi1.1% bigger
Outline1,091 km678 mi1,027 km638 mi5.8% shorter
Centre13.34° E, 51.05° N13.3° E, 51.1° N13.35° E, 51.04° N13.4° E, 51.0° N2 km south-east1 mi south-east
Westernmost11.87° E, 50.54° N11.9° E, 50.5° N11.96° E, 50.63° N12.0° E, 50.6° N6 km short4 mi short
Easternmost15.04° E, 51.27° N15.0° E, 51.3° N15.03° E, 51.25° N15.0° E, 51.2° N1 km short0 mi short
Southernmost12.32° E, 50.17° N12.3° E, 50.2° N12.34° E, 50.27° N12.3° E, 50.3° N11 km short7 mi short
Northernmost12.83° E, 51.68° N12.8° E, 51.7° N12.84° E, 51.62° N12.8° E, 51.6° N7 km short4 mi short

Near the land border, 48% of the crowd’s lines run inside Sachsen.

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.

Sachsen and Czechia: 396 km in the game, 454 km officially.

6 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Czechia396 km in the game454 km officially361 km the crowd’s8.8% shorter
Thüringen239 km in the game241 km the crowd’s0.8% longer
Brandenburg229 km in the game219 km the crowd’s4.4% shorter
Sachsen-Anhalt178 km in the game165 km the crowd’s7.3% shorter
Poland111 km in the game123 km officially107 km the crowd’s3.6% shorter
Bayern32 km in the game23 km the crowd’s28.1% 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 (0.6 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.6 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 (2.8 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Sachsen: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Sachsen 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 116 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 Sachsen yourself and add your line to the next update.