Commuting in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 7:56 PM
Is the commute in Northwest Arctic Borough longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 7:56 PM
Commute Time Burden in Northwest Arctic Borough: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Northwest Arctic Borough spend about 11 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 46 hours, about 1.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 66% less time on the road than the Alaska average of 16.1 minutes each way, a difference of 10.5 minutes.
Northwest Arctic Borough holds about 1.0% of Alaska's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Northwest Arctic Borough would save about 18 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $573 at the same national wage assumption used above.
Area
One-Way Commute
Daily Round-Trip
Yearly Time Spent
Estimated Yearly Cost
Local Road Traffic (VPD)
Northwest Arctic Borough
5.5 min
11.1 min
46 hrs/yr
$1,432
39
Alaska
16.1 min
32.2 min
134 hrs/yr
$4,157
583
United States
22.4 min
44.8 min
187 hrs/yr
$5,790
1,355
The estimated yearly cost applies a single national rule of thumb (U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics average hourly earnings), not a measurement of wages in this area - treat it
as a rough estimate, not a paycheck figure. Local road traffic counts, vehicles per day
on non-highway roads, come from proprietary
Ticon and
TrafficZoom data.
On average, it takes
5.5
minutes to get to work in
Northwest Arctic Borough.
That's 75% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Among the top 3 fastest counties in Alaska
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:30 AM – 08:59 AM. Walking is the most common commute choice, followed by driving. About 5.3% work from home. This differs from the national pattern, where driving is the most common commute choice.
How People Get to Work in Northwest Arctic Borough
Walked:
44.5%unusually high
Car:
27.4%unusually low
Other:
21.0%
Worked at Home:
5.3%
Public Transportation:
0.9%
Taxi:
0.4%
Motorcycle:
0.3%
Bicycle:
0.2%unusually low
Driving is 64% less common in Northwest Arctic Borough than the Alaska average (27.4% vs 76.9%).
Walking is unusually common in Northwest Arctic Borough: 6.1 times more than the Alaska average (44.5% vs 7.2%).
Biking is unusually rare in Northwest Arctic Borough: 4.0 times less than the Alaska average (0.2% vs 0.7%).
Northwest Arctic Borough stands out for active commuting: 44.7% of workers walk or bike to work, 5.6 times the Alaska average of 7.9%.
Commute Mode Trends in Northwest Arctic Borough, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Northwest Arctic Borough get to work, as a share of all workers aged 16 and over, across 16 U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) releases from 2009 to 2024. Each release is a 5-year estimate: the 2024 figures cover surveys taken from 2020 to 2024. Because neighboring releases share most of their survey years, the lines move gradually, and a sudden change such as the rise of remote work in 2020 spreads across several releases. Hover over or tap a line to highlight it, and use the legend to show or hide a mode. Driving starts hidden so the smaller modes stay readable.
Share of workers aged 16 and over, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show commute mode data by year
Year
Walked
Car
Other
Worked at Home
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
55.8%
17.2%
18.7%
4.1%
0.7%
3.1%
0.0%
0.4%
2010
50.4%
18.8%
15.9%
10.5%
0.6%
3.1%
0.0%
0.7%
2011
48.8%
21.4%
15.7%
10.0%
0.7%
2.7%
0.0%
0.6%
2012
48.6%
23.5%
15.7%
8.2%
0.8%
2.9%
0.0%
0.4%
2013
48.7%
23.7%
16.7%
7.3%
0.7%
2.4%
0.0%
0.6%
2014
45.8%
24.3%
19.1%
8.6%
0.3%
1.4%
0.0%
0.4%
2015
46.9%
26.9%
19.4%
4.6%
0.4%
1.3%
0.0%
0.4%
2016
47.3%
25.9%
19.8%
5.1%
0.2%
1.3%
0.0%
0.4%
2017
44.6%
29.1%
19.3%
5.0%
0.3%
1.1%
0.0%
0.7%
2018
43.3%
29.6%
20.7%
5.0%
0.2%
0.5%
0.0%
0.7%
2019
43.2%
29.5%
18.2%
6.5%
1.1%
0.8%
0.0%
0.7%
2020
44.0%
28.5%
18.5%
6.7%
1.2%
0.5%
0.0%
0.5%
2021
45.3%
28.6%
17.4%
6.1%
1.3%
0.9%
0.0%
0.5%
2022
44.2%
30.7%
18.2%
4.6%
1.3%
0.9%
0.1%
0.0%
2023
45.9%
26.6%
17.9%
6.2%
1.9%
0.8%
0.2%
0.4%
2024
44.5%
27.4%
21.0%
5.3%
0.9%
0.4%
0.3%
0.2%
Driving's share peaked in 2022 at 30.7%. Overall it rose from 17.2% in 2009 to 27.4% in 2024, up 10.2 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.
Working from home gained the most ground in Northwest Arctic Borough: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 5.3% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 55.8% to 44.5% of workers (down 11.3 percentage points).
Public transit overtook taking a taxi to become the 5th most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.
Working from home peaked at 10.5% in 2010 and has since fallen back to 5.3%.
Walking was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024, with its share ranging from 43.2% to 55.8%.
Commute Start Times in Northwest Arctic Borough
🚦Rush-Hour RegularsThe 2nd-highest share of rush-hour departures among Alaska's 30 counties: 65.3% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Northwest Arctic Borough?
The bars show when commuters in Northwest Arctic Borough leave home for work, as a share of everyone who commutes (people who work from home are not counted), from the 2024 ACS 5-year estimates. The thin violet marks show Alaska for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
Northwest Arctic BoroughAlaskaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Northwest Arctic Borough is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 45.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.1% across Alaska. Early starts are less common than in Alaska: 3.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Alaska: 65.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.3% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.0%) leave at 9 AM or later, which usually points to shift work, flexible hours or part-time jobs.
When people leave matters as much as how far they go. Rush-hour traffic shrinks how much ground a 20-minute trip covers, so a trade area drawn as a simple circle often takes in neighborhoods that customers or staff would never drive from and misses others that are an easy trip. A drive-time zone, also called an isochrone, outlines every place within a set number of minutes of an address, which makes it the more honest way to size a store's catchment, a hiring area or the commute from a new home.
See it for yourself on the interactive map: click any spot in Northwest Arctic Borough, pick a 5, 10, 15 or 30-minute drive and see the local demographics of the people who live within that exact drive time.
Is Northwest Arctic Borough Waking Up Earlier? Typical Departure Time, 2009-2024
Each line follows the typical (median) departure time: the moment by which half of commuters have already left home. Higher on the chart means a later start. Setting Northwest Arctic Borough next to Alaska and the U.S. shows whether local mornings are drifting earlier or later than everyone else's. The figures span 16 ACS 5-year releases, so changes build up gradually rather than jumping from one year to the next.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Northwest Arctic Borough
Alaska
United States
2009
8:06 AM
7:47 AM
7:37 AM
2010
8:08 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
2011
8:09 AM
7:46 AM
7:38 AM
2012
8:10 AM
7:47 AM
7:38 AM
2013
8:11 AM
7:46 AM
7:39 AM
2014
8:06 AM
7:45 AM
7:39 AM
2015
8:00 AM
7:45 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:57 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:56 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:56 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:58 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:58 AM
7:45 AM
7:37 AM
2021
8:00 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:56 AM
7:44 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:56 AM
7:44 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:54 AM
7:43 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Northwest Arctic Borough were on the road by 7:54 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (8:06 AM). The shift is sharper than across Alaska, where the typical start moved 4 minutes earlier. Commuters in Northwest Arctic Borough now leave 16 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Northwest Arctic Borough has moved 5 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Northwest Arctic Borough in the whole series.
How does Northwest Arctic Borough's commute time compare?
Metric
Northwest Arctic Borough
Alaska
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
5.5 min
16.1 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
08:30 AM – 08:59 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
5.3%
9.7%
15.0%
Walked
44.5%
7.2%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.9%
1.0%
3.2%
The average commute time in Northwest Arctic Borough is 5.5 minutes, shorter than the 16.1 minutes in Alaska.
0.9% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.0% in Alaska. 44.5% commute by walking, higher than the 7.2% in Alaska.
Northwest Arctic Borough, AK Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Northwest Arctic Borough, AK is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 7,441 residents against a local median of 9,860. The measure that sets Northwest Arctic Borough, AK apart most is one-way commute: 5.5 min, 17% below the local median of 6.7 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.
Work from home tells the same story from another angle: 5.3% against a local median of 6.3%, 16% below it. The counties themselves spread 1.9 min on one-way commute, so Northwest Arctic Borough, AK sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Northwest Arctic Borough, AK has the lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska.
How much does the average commute cost workers in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska?
Commuters here spend an estimated 46 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $1,432 at a typical national wage. That's 66% less than the typical Alaska commuter spends.
When is rush hour worst in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:30 AM – 08:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How do commute times compare across counties in Alaska?
Among counties in Alaska, the shortest average commutes are in Skagway Municipality (4.7 min), Northwest Arctic Borough (5.5 min), Nome Census Area (5.8 min). The longest are in Matanuska-Susitna Borough (25.3 min), Fairbanks North Star Borough (17.2 min), Anchorage Municipality (17.1 min).