Commuting in Sussex County, Delaware: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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How much time do drivers in Sussex County spend on the road daily?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:10 PM
Commute Time Burden in Sussex County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Sussex County spend about 46 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 190 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% more time on the road than the Delaware average of 22.1 minutes each way, a difference of 0.8 minutes.
Sussex County holds about 24.8% of Delaware's population but accounts for roughly 25.7% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Sussex County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,361 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)
Sussex County
22.8 min
45.7 min
190 hrs/yr
$5,902
1,029
Delaware
22.1 min
44.2 min
184 hrs/yr
$5,703
1,341
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
22.8
minutes to get to work in
Sussex County.
That's 2% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slowest county in Delaware
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 13.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Sussex County
Car:
83.4%
Worked at Home:
13.4%
Walked:
1.4%
Other:
0.8%
Bicycle:
0.5%
Public Transportation:
0.5%unusually low
Motorcycle:
0.1%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is unusually rare in Sussex County: 4.0 times less than the Delaware average (0.5% vs 1.8%).
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Sussex County: 7.9 times less than the Delaware average (0.0% vs 0.3%).
Commute Mode Trends in Sussex County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Sussex County 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
Car
Worked at Home
Walked
Other
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Motorcycle
Taxi
2009
91.0%
3.5%
1.8%
2.6%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
91.5%
3.2%
1.8%
2.6%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
91.2%
3.2%
2.2%
2.2%
0.9%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2012
91.0%
3.8%
1.9%
1.9%
0.8%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
2013
91.0%
4.0%
2.0%
1.5%
1.0%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
2014
90.8%
4.1%
2.2%
1.5%
1.0%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2015
90.4%
4.9%
2.2%
1.2%
0.9%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
2016
90.9%
5.1%
1.7%
1.1%
0.8%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2017
90.7%
5.6%
1.7%
0.9%
0.7%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2018
90.3%
6.6%
1.4%
0.9%
0.5%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2019
90.3%
7.2%
1.1%
0.7%
0.4%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
89.6%
8.0%
1.0%
0.7%
0.3%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2021
88.2%
9.2%
1.1%
0.9%
0.2%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2022
86.6%
10.4%
1.4%
0.9%
0.2%
0.4%
0.0%
0.1%
2023
84.8%
11.8%
1.4%
1.1%
0.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
2024
83.4%
13.4%
1.4%
0.8%
0.5%
0.5%
0.1%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 91.5%. Overall it fell from 91.0% in 2009 to 83.4% in 2024, down 7.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Sussex County: its share of workers rose from 3.5% in 2009 to 13.4% in 2024, up 9.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 6.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Commute Start Times in Sussex County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Sussex County?
The bars show when commuters in Sussex County 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 Delaware for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMSussex County5.3%Delaware4.9%
5.3%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMSussex County2.8%Delaware3.2%
2.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMSussex County5.2%Delaware4.5%
5.2%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMSussex County9.0%Delaware8.4%
9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMSussex County11.4%Delaware10.2%
11.4%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMSussex County16.4%Delaware16.2%
16.4%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMSussex County11.8%Delaware12.0%
11.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMSussex County11.0%Delaware11.7%
11.0%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMSussex County4.3%Delaware5.5%
4.3%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMSussex County6.1%Delaware6.2%
6.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMSussex County2.6%Delaware2.6%
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMSussex County1.2%Delaware1.4%
1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMSussex County7.4%Delaware6.9%
7.4%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMSussex County5.3%Delaware6.4%
5.3%
Sussex CountyDelawareSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Sussex County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 16.2% across Delaware. Early starts are about as common as in Delaware: 13.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Delaware's: 50.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.7%) 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 Sussex County, 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 Sussex County 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 Sussex County next to Delaware 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
Sussex County
Delaware
United States
2009
7:35 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:35 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:35 AM
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:30 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Sussex County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). Across Delaware, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Sussex County now leave 8 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Sussex County has moved 4 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Sussex County in the whole series.
How does Sussex County's commute time compare?
Metric
Sussex County
Delaware
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
22.8 min
22.1 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
13.4%
15.1%
15.0%
Walked
1.4%
2.0%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
1.8%
3.2%
The average commute time in Sussex County is 22.8 minutes, longer than the 22.1 minutes in Delaware.
0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Delaware. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Delaware.
Sussex County, DE Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Sussex County, DE is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 252,121 residents against a local median of 94,930. Where Sussex County, DE breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 53% above the local median of 8.7% at 13.4%.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 22.8 min against a local median of 19.0 min, 20% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 20% above the local median it puts Sussex County, DE at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 5.4% on work from home, so Sussex County, DE sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Sussex County, DE has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Sussex County, Delaware.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Sussex County, Delaware?
Commuters here spend an estimated 190 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,902 at a typical national wage. That's 3% more than the typical Delaware commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Sussex County, Delaware?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Sussex County, Delaware. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Do people use public transit in Sussex County, Delaware?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.5% of commuters use it versus 1.8% in Delaware, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Delaware?
Among counties in Delaware, the shortest average commutes are in Kent County (21.6 min), New Castle County (21.9 min), Sussex County (22.8 min). The longest are in Sussex County (22.8 min), New Castle County (21.9 min), Kent County (21.6 min).