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How the crowd draws

32 drawings of its land border and 33 drawings of its coast, from memory on Borderline’s Mexico map, 1 October 2026 to 28 October 2026.

Draw Veracruz

In numbers

Last updated on 28 October 2026
The real oneThe crowd’s
Area72,000 km²28,000 sq mi71,000 km²27,000 sq mi1.5% smaller
Outline2,804 km1,742 mi2,598 km1,614 mi7.4% shorter
Centre96.40° W, 19.39° N96.4° W, 19.4° N96.50° W, 19.51° N96.5° W, 19.5° N17 km north-west11 mi north-west
Westernmost98.68° W, 22.38° N98.7° W, 22.4° N98.57° W, 21.61° N98.6° W, 21.6° N12 km short7 mi short
Easternmost93.61° W, 17.31° N93.6° W, 17.3° N93.68° W, 17.52° N93.7° W, 17.5° N7 km short4 mi short
Southernmost93.87° W, 17.14° N93.9° W, 17.1° N94.04° W, 17.38° N94.0° W, 17.4° N27 km short17 mi short
Northernmost98.22° W, 22.47° N98.2° W, 22.5° N97.76° W, 22.29° N97.8° W, 22.3° N20 km short12 mi short

Near the land border, 59% of the crowd’s lines run inside Veracruz. Near the coast, 29% 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 INEGI (coasts, islands left out), 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.

Veracruz’s coast: 702 km in the game, 720 km officially.

7 neighbours
Border withIn the gameThe crowd’s
Puebla714 km in the game730 km the crowd’s2.2% longer
Oaxaca611 km in the game593 km the crowd’s2.9% shorter
Hidalgo381 km in the game284 km the crowd’s25.5% shorter
San Luis Potosí247 km in the game153 km the crowd’s38.1% shorter
Tabasco191 km in the game230 km the crowd’s20.4% longer
Tamaulipas152 km in the game111 km the crowd’s27.0% shorter
Chiapas43 km in the game36 km the crowd’s16.3% shorter
The coast702 km in the game720 km officially662 km the crowd’s5.7% shorter

Watch the drawings

See every line on The Drawn Mexico →
Not enough drawings yet
The worst 20% and the best 20%By how close a drawing comes to the state17 of 20 drawings needed on each side
Not enough drawings yet
Another country and MexicoFrom where are you from; no answer left out6 of 10 drawings from another country needed
The fastest and the slowest thirdBy time spent drawingDownload (0.3 MB)
Quickest and slowest to startBy time before the first lineDownload (0.3 MB)
Where drawings start and endStarts teal, ends pink, piled up blackDownload (0.1 MB)
The drawings stacked as blocksWhere many drawings pass, the stack growsDownload (1.3 MB)

How it is measured

The crowd’s Veracruz: every few km along the real line, each drawing’s nearest point, inside Veracruz 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 65 drawings that scored 10 or more on Borderline’s Mexico 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 Veracruz yourself and add your line to the next update.