Commuting to work is part of daily life for many Americans. Unless you work from home full-time, you’re likely one of the millions of Americans commuting to work each day. As taxing as this daily slog can be on your patience and your wallet, it can also provide a space to prepare for the day ahead or decompress after a stressful day. Whether you listen to music while driving or read on the bus, each of us experiences a different commute every day.
Below, we’ll compare different commutes across the country to explore the time, distance, and cost of the average American commute.
Key Insights
- The average American commute is about 20.5 miles each way, or 41 miles roundtrip [1]
- Average American clocks 9,840 miles every year commuting
- We commute about 27.6 minutes each way, or about 55.2 minutes roundtrip [3]
- Those who commute by bus have the longest travel time of 46.6 minutes [23]
- The average commute costs about $4,600 each year [16]
- Those leaving for work between 6-6:30 AM have the longest drive (32.8 minutes) [23]
- About 76.4% of commuters drive alone to work [8]
- New York has the longest commute (33.33 minutes); South Dakota has the shortest commute (17 minutes) [12]
- Of the most populous U.S. cities, the New York metropolitan area has the longest commute (36.3 minutes); the Wichita, KS metropolitan area has the shortest commute (19.5 minutes) [13]
- Nigeria has a longer commute than any other country (61.97 minutes), while Iceland has the shortest (19.77 minutes) [15]
The average commute is about 20.5 miles each way
That’s about 41 miles roundtrip in the average daily commute [1]. For context, a widely accepted “reasonable commute” is 50 miles from a worker’s employer, taking into account the time it takes to travel that distance. [2] To put in perspective, an average American clocks 9,840 miles a year commuting. However, this number can vary greatly depending on where you live and work, as well as your mode of transportation.
When considering the overall length of any given commute, however, time spent driving is often more helpful than a mileage comparison. Drivers can, for example, cover 20.5 miles in rural areas much quicker than 20.5 miles in congested cities.
Commute time in minutes
The average American commute is just over 27 minutes each way [10]. That’s nearly 10 full days—or all of your two-week PTO—spent commuting annually. Of course, many commuters travel longer than 27 minutes in denser populated areas. In fact, about 7.7% of commuters spend two hours or more on the road roundtrip [6].
With close to half [4] of commuters admitting to singing along to music in the car and the average song being about three and a half minutes long [5], the average commute is over in about eight songs. Not too bad when you look at it that way, huh?
Time of journey and mode of transportation also greatly impact average commutes. One might think the early bird catches the worm; however, those leaving for work between 6-6:30 AM have the longest drive time, adding about five minutes to their morning commute. Additionally, public transportation has some of the longest commute times; those who commute by bus have the longest travel time of 46.6 minutes [23].
Preferred modes of transportation
As per a 2022 report on the American commute, about 76% percent of Americans report commuting to work by car, making it the most popular mode of transportation for Americans.
Most commuters across the country drive alone to work, but this varies depending on proximity to metro areas. For example, only about 50% of those in the New York metro area drive alone to work, while about 30% of New Yorkers take public transportation to work [7]. And although not even 1% of Americans commute to work by bike, around 7% of those in Corvallis, OR commute by bike, and about 4% of those in Boulder, CO do the same.
See the comparison of mode of transportation below, based on a typical, pre-pandemic year [8]:
- Drive alone: 76.4%
- Carpool: 9.4%
- Public transportation: 5.2%
- Work from home: 4.4%
- Walk: 2.8%
- Other: 1.3%
- Bicycle: 0.6%
Commute time by state
When it comes to driving, specifically, the average, one-way commute to work varies by state [12]:
- Alabama: 24.7 minutes
- Alaska: 18.8 minutes
- Arizona: 25.3 minutes
- Arkansas: 21.7 minutes
- California: 29.3 minutes
- Colorado: 25.5 minutes
- Connecticut: 26.3 minutes
- Delaware: 25.8 minutes
- Florida: 27.4 minutes
- Georgia: 28.4 minutes
- Hawaii: 27.4 minutes
- Idaho: 20.7 minutes
- Illinois: 29.0 minutes
- Indiana: 23.6 minutes
- Iowa: 19.1 minutes
- Kansas: 19.3 minutes
- Kentucky: 23.3 minutes
- Louisiana: 25.5 minutes
- Maine: 24.0 minutes
- Maryland: 32.9 minutes
- Massachusetts: 29.7 minutes
- Michigan: 24.5 minutes
- Minnesota: 23.5 minutes
- Mississippi: 24.6 minutes
- Missouri: 23.6 minutes
- Montana: 18.0 minutes
- Nebraska: 18.6 minutes
- Nevada: 24.3 minutes
- New Hampshire: 27.3 minutes
- New Jersey: 31.7 minutes
- New Mexico: 22.1 minutes
- New York: 33.3 minutes
- North Carolina: 24.5 minutes
- North Dakota: 17.1 minutes
- Ohio: 23.5 minutes
- Oklahoma: 21.7 minutes
- Oregon: 23.7 minutes
- Pennsylvania: 26.9 minutes
- Rhode Island: 24.8 minutes
- South Carolina: 24.6 minutes
- South Dakota: 17.0 minutes
- Tennessee: 25.0 minutes
- Texas: 26.4 minutes
- Utah: 21.7 minutes
- Vermont: 22.9 minutes
- Virginia: 28.4 minutes
- Washington: 27.6 minutes
- West Virginia: 25.8 minutes
- Wisconsin: 22.0 minutes
- Wyoming: 17.8 minutes
New York state has the longest commute at 33.33 minutes, on average, while South Dakota has the shortest commute at around 17 minutes. While interesting, state-wide data doesn’t provide the most accurate measure of commute times. For example, those in NYC will of course have a much longer commute than those in rural New York state.
Therefore, we’ve honed in on the most populous metro areas across the nation, and below are the cities with the longest average commute times by minute [13]:
- New York, NY: 36.3 minutes
- Washington, D.C.: 34.6 minutes
- San Francisco, CA: 32.8 minutes
- Riverside-San Bernardino, CA: 32.1 minutes
- Stockton, CA: 32 minutes
- Chicago, IL: 31.6 minutes
- Atlanta, GA: 31.4 minutes
- Boston, MA: 31 minutes
- Baltimore, MD: 30.8 minutes
- Bridgeport-Stamford, CT: 30.4 minutes
Most populous metro areas with the shortest commute times [13]:
- Wichita, KS: 19.5 minutes
- Omaha, NE: 20.2 minutes
- Des Moines, IA: 20.3 minutes
- Toledo, OH: 20.7 minutes
- Syracuse, NY: 21.2 minutes
- Dayton, OH: 21.3 minutes
- Rochester, NY: 21.3 minutes
- Provo-Orem, UT: 21.4 minutes
- Tulsa, OK: 21.5 minutes
- Buffalo, NY: 21.5 minutes
Again, items such as population density, infrastructure, and more developed public transportation systems should be considered when examining the length of any commute.
Global comparison
To see how our nationwide commute of 27.6 minutes stacks up against the world, we also analyzed global data.
Below, see the 5 countries with the longest commute times in minutes [15]:
- Nigeria: 61.97 minutes
- Costa Rica: 60.19 minutes
- Sri Lanka: 57.1 minutes
- Kenya: 53.98 minutes
- Bangladesh: 55.92 minutes
5 countries with shortest commute times in minutes [15]:
- Iceland: 19.77 minutes
- Oman: 22.76 minutes
- Cyprus: 22.93 minutes
- Estonia: 24.51 minutes
- Austria: 25.55 minutes
Interestingly, our commute time is on par with Europe, where more than half of workers travel less than 30 min to work each way [14]. This may seem surprising, as America surpasses many other countries insofar as miles driven each year.
The cost of commuting to work
It’s difficult to say what the true cost of commuting is, as this varies drastically depending on region, local gas prices, mode of transportation, miles traveled, tolls, and more. However, according to our research, an average American spends close to $4,600 each year on the average commute [16]. To show the variations by location, the average cost of a commute in Vermont is just under $3.2k, while the average cost of a commute in New York is around $7.2k per year.
Regarding public transportation:
- The average commuter rail price in 2021 was $6.32 [17]
- The average intercity rail price was $72.12 [17]
- The average monthly bus pass is $58.53 [19]
- Tolls cost commuters about $8.40 per day [4]
Conclusion
As you can see, a number of factors impact our daily commute. Still, at nearly 28 minutes, our average daily commute adds up to about 10 full days on the road and over $4,000 each year. We hope that our research helps you to make a more informed decision about the ways in which you commute going forward to save you valuable time and money.
One Response
I am trying to find out how far the average American driving commute to work is. In your article you state that it is 20.5 miles each way and then give a footnote that goes to an article from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2003. On page one of their article (next to the chart of commute distances reported) they state that the average commute is 15 miles and that 68% of drivers drive 15 miles or less. (From the chart you will see that the median they report is 10 miles.)
I have come across several other articles that also use the 41 mile round trip commute but, without citation or the information’s origin.
I really want to get an accurate picture of the current commute of average Americans. I don’t think 20 year old data gives this and I can’t figure out where everyone is getting the 41 mile (round trip) figure when this particular article states it is 15 each way.
Can you please shed some light on this? Thank you.