draw.city
Rate itDraw an outline on the US map that holds exactly today's number of people.
on draw.city
draw.city gives you a target population each day, such as 180,000 people, and you trace an outline anywhere on a map of the United States to match it. The game measures your area against 2020 census data and scores how close you came. A bonus round asks you to guess the area's centre of population.
About draw.city
draw.city is a daily map game from BlockAtlas, a site of US census maps. Each day has one target, a number of people, and you pick a difficulty and draw a single closed outline anywhere in the United States that you think holds that many residents.
When you finish, the game counts the people inside your shape from 2020 census blocks (or census tracts for very large areas) and shows your result with the land area and population density. You can then try a bonus: guessing where the centre of population of your area lies. The game explains that the answer is shown as a band rather than a point, because census blocks report totals without saying where in the block people live.
An archive lists a challenge for every past day with its target, and a free draw mode lets you explore where people live. You can share a link to your result, and logging in with a BlockAtlas account is optional. It suits map lovers who want to build an instinct for how many people live in a city, a county or a stretch of countryside.
How to play draw.city
- Open draw.city to see today's target population.
- Choose Easy, where a count within 25% of the target is correct, or Hard, which hides the map labels.
- Select Draw your area, or hide the panel, and trace one complete outline on the US map.
- See how many people live inside it, counted from 2020 census blocks, with its land area and density; you have 10 attempts.
- Try the bonus guess for the centre of population, then share your result or open past challenges.
Screenshots
Tips
- For small targets, a few blocks of a dense city go a long way; for large ones, think in counties.
- Rural areas add land without adding many people, so use them to fine-tune.
- Check the density of your result to calibrate the next day's drawing.
- On Easy the window is wide (129,750 to 216,250 for a 173,000 target), so aim for the middle rather than chasing the exact figure.
Questions
What data is used?
The 2020 US census, counted by census blocks for most areas and by tracts for very large ones.
Can I play past days?
Yes, the archive lists a challenge for every day with its target.
Do I need an account?
No. Logging in with BlockAtlas is optional.
What is the difference between Easy and Hard?
Easy counts any area within 25% of the target as correct. Hard hides the map labels, so you judge the place from the satellite map alone.
Ratings and reviews
Games like draw.city
Headcount (FlightQ)
The same idea on a world night map: draw one loop around each of five population targets a day, scored out of…
GeoSlice
Also about where people live: draw lines to split the population of three places a day into even parts
Mapster
Another drawing game on a map: sketch the day's country outline from memory for up to 1,000 points
How wide? roughly.
A sense-of-size test: resize one city's outline against another for five pairs a day
Ballot Blocks
Another read of a US neighbourhood from what you see: guess how it voted in 2024 in seven tries
Statele
A US map daily: name the state from its outline in six guesses, then bonus rounds
INSET
Drag a country to its true size on a map of somewhere else, five times a day.
Pinpoint (Hemiscope)
Place the day's country on five sliders of real statistics, scored out of 500.