Counties With the Longest and Shortest Commutes in America

Workers in Bronx County, New York average 43.9 minutes each way to their jobs. In Bethel Census Area, Alaska, the average is 7.4 minutes. That 36.5-minute gap reflects geography, housing costs, transit access, and the spatial mismatch between where workers can afford to live and where jobs are actually located.

The Counties With the Longest Commutes

These rankings cover counties with populations above 10,000, where the median commute is 24.8 minutes. New York City and its exurbs, the outer D.C. suburbs, and rural counties in the South and Appalachia dominate this list. In the New York City boroughs, long averages mostly reflect transit: about half or more of commuters in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens ride it, against 4% nationally.

1. Bronx County, New York: 43.9 minutes average commute
2. Greene County, Mississippi: 43.8 minutes average commute
3. Pike County, Pennsylvania: 43.6 minutes average commute
4. Richmond County, New York: 43.5 minutes average commute
5. Queens County, New York: 43.1 minutes average commute
6. Charles County, Maryland: 43.1 minutes average commute
7. Buckingham County, Virginia: 42.7 minutes average commute
8. Lewis County, Kentucky: 42.3 minutes average commute
9. Kings County, New York: 42.1 minutes average commute
10. Morgan County, West Virginia: 41.7 minutes average commute

The Counties With the Shortest Commutes

Short commutes appear in two very different kinds of places: small rural counties where housing and jobs are close together, and college or government-dominated communities with dense local employment. Neither extreme tells the full economic story on its own.

1. Bethel Census Area, Alaska: 7.4 minutes average commute
2. Box Butte County, Nebraska: 10.6 minutes average commute
3. Kodiak Island Borough, Alaska: 10.6 minutes average commute
4. Red Willow County, Nebraska: 11.9 minutes average commute
5. Sioux County, Iowa: 12.7 minutes average commute
6. Ford County, Kansas: 12.9 minutes average commute
7. Ellis County, Kansas: 13.0 minutes average commute
8. Davison County, South Dakota: 13.1 minutes average commute
9. Jackson County, Oklahoma: 13.3 minutes average commute
10. Brown County, South Dakota: 13.4 minutes average commute

What Long Commutes Signal

In counties where workers average more than 40 minutes each way, commuting costs consume a measurable share of household budgets. At 43.9 minutes each way, Bronx County, New York workers spend roughly an hour and a half daily in transit, time that compounds across a year into hundreds of hours. The median household income in Bronx County is $49,036, well below the national figure of $78,538.

Commute Time and Labor Force Participation

Commute length is not just a convenience issue. Research consistently shows that very long commutes depress labor force participation, particularly among workers with caregiving responsibilities. Counties where commutes exceed 40 minutes do post lower female labor force participation, but men's participation is lower there too, so commute time alone does not explain it. Examining commute data alongside participation rates reveals where access to local jobs, remote work options, or transit investment could have the greatest impact on bringing more workers into the labor force.

The Geography of the American Commute

Commute times are a proxy for the spatial relationship between housing markets and labor markets. When those markets align, commutes stay short and workers retain more productive time. When they diverge, as they have in high-cost metro areas over recent decades, commutes lengthen and the burden falls disproportionately on workers who cannot afford to live near their jobs. County-level commute data makes that divergence visible and quantifiable across every part of the country.