Split the People: Cut a Country in Half by Population

Can you divide a country into two halves with the same number of people? In Split the People you draw one straight line through a real place. TrueSize then counts the people on each side, raises the population from the map as 3D columns, and tells you how close you came to an even 50/50 split.

It is harder than it sounds. A line through the middle of the map rarely splits the population, because people gather in cities, along coasts and in river valleys. To play well you need to know where people actually live.

After your cut, the people of each side rise from the map in blue and amber.

How to play

1. Open the Fun tab and click Split (keytip: Alt, then F, then H). You can also open the game directly at truesize.net/#split.
2. Choose the Places to cut and the Game mode, then click Start Cutting.
3. The game picks a random place and shows its name, its flag and how many people live there. For a place inside a country, the header shows the whole path from the country down, with a flag for every place that has one.
4. Click once to start your line and click again to cut. The line keeps going past your clicks, so it divides the whole place, islands included.
5. Read the result: both sides' share of the people, and a green line labelled 50% that marks the even split at your angle.
6. Click Next Round for a new place, or Change game to go back to the start dialog.

Aiming: the rest of the world is dimmed and the line follows your cursor.

Results

Off from 50/50	Result
0.5% or less	Perfect!
Up to 5%	Correct!
Up to 10%	Close!
More than 10%	Not quite!

If your line misses the people completely, the game asks you to try again and the round continues.

Game modes

• Endless has no game over. Every place is a new round.
• Three lives costs a life for any wrong cut, worse than 60/40. The game ends when your lives run out, and the most rounds you have survived is saved in your browser.

Countries, states, counties and towns

Choose how large the places are before you start.

Option	What you get
Countries	Any country with at least 20,000 people
States and provinces	The first level inside a country
Counties and districts	The second level inside a country
Cities and towns	Smaller places with at least 1,000 people

The levels follow each country's own subdivisions, so a "county" in one country can be larger than a "state" in another.

Tips for better scores

• Find the largest city first. Your line has to pass close to it, or one side will win easily.
• Think about where people live, not about the shape of the place. A large empty desert or forest counts for almost nothing.
• Look for a second cluster of cities on the far side of the place, and aim the line between the two.
• After each round, compare your line with the green one to see how far off you were.

Where the numbers come from

The people are counted from the GHS-POP 2025 population grid by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre, with cells down to about 250 m. People are counted where they live, so the total can differ a little from a country's official figure. Very small places are left out, because a few grid cells are not enough for a fair cut.

See the same view outside the game

The Population tool shows these 3D columns for any circle you draw or any region on your map, with nothing to score.

Where it works

Split the People works on the web, in a desktop or phone browser. Open it directly with truesize.net/#split.

Related

• Population Radius Tool
• TrueSize Challenge Game
• Flag Quiz Game
• Half of humanity in one circle

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