Chatham County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Chatham County, Georgia: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:42 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Chatham County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:42 PM

Commute Time Burden in Chatham County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Chatham County spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 175 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 11% less time on the road than the Georgia average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 2.7 minutes.

Chatham County holds about 2.8% of Georgia's population but accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Chatham County would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,169 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)
Chatham County	21.0 min	42.0 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,422	2,501
Georgia	23.6 min	47.3 min	197 hrs/yr	$6,109	1,447
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.

Commute Time Map: Georgia Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Georgia

Chattahoochee County (8.6 min)
Ben Hill County (12.7 min)
Tift County (15.8 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Georgia

Talbot County (40.8 min)
McIntosh County (37.7 min)
Paulding County (36.4 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Chatham County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.0 minutes to get to work in Chatham County. That's 6% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 11.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Chatham County

Biking is unusually common in Chatham County: 5.1 times more than the Georgia average (0.8% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Chatham County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Chatham 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	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	90.7%	3.0%	2.3%	0.7%	2.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	90.6%	3.2%	2.3%	0.5%	2.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	90.4%	3.5%	2.1%	0.5%	2.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%
2012	90.2%	3.5%	2.4%	0.6%	2.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.3%
2013	90.3%	3.6%	2.2%	0.6%	2.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%
2014	89.6%	3.6%	2.5%	0.7%	2.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.3%
2015	89.1%	3.5%	2.4%	0.9%	2.6%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2016	88.5%	3.8%	2.6%	0.9%	2.7%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2017	88.0%	4.1%	2.5%	0.9%	2.7%	1.2%	0.3%	0.3%
2018	88.2%	4.0%	2.7%	0.8%	2.6%	1.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2019	87.7%	4.5%	2.8%	0.9%	2.5%	1.0%	0.4%	0.2%
2020	86.4%	6.1%	2.8%	1.2%	2.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2021	86.6%	6.9%	2.4%	1.3%	1.7%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%
2022	85.6%	8.5%	2.3%	1.2%	1.5%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	84.1%	9.9%	2.3%	1.2%	1.4%	0.8%	0.3%	0.1%
2024	82.4%	11.6%	2.1%	1.3%	1.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.7% in 2009 to 82.4% in 2024, down 8.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Chatham County: its share of workers rose from 3.0% in 2009 to 11.6% in 2024, up 8.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.5% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Walking overtook public transit to become the 3rd most common choice in the 2018 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Chatham County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Chatham County?

The bars show when commuters in Chatham 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 Georgia for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.5%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		9.5%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		10.5%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		7.6%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.6%

Chatham County Georgia Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Chatham County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.9% across Georgia. Early starts are about as common as in Georgia: 13.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.8% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Georgia: 45.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.6%) 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 Chatham 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 Chatham 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 Chatham County next to Georgia 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	Chatham County	Georgia	United States
2009	7:49 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:47 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:44 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:45 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:44 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:42 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:42 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:42 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:40 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Chatham County were on the road by 7:40 AM, 8 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:49 AM). Across Georgia, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Chatham County now leave 2 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 Chatham County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Chatham County's commute time compare?

Metric	Chatham County	Georgia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.0 min	23.6 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	11.6%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	1.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Chatham County is 21.0 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Georgia.

1.2% commute by public transit, higher than the 1.1% in Georgia. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 1.3% in Georgia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Chatham County, GA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Chatham County, GA is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 300,892 residents against a local median of 67,384. The measure that sets Chatham County, GA apart most is work from home: 11.6%, 35% above the local median of 8.6%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 21.0 min against a local median of 30.3 min, 31% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 31% below the local median it puts Chatham County, GA at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 6.7% on work from home, so Chatham County, GA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Chatham County, GA has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Chatham County, GA	300,892	21.0 min #3/6	11.6% #2/6	7:40 AM #5/6
Bryan County, GA	48,263	32.7 min	9.4%	7:11 AM
Liberty County, GA	67,384	17.8 min	7.8%	6:58 AM
Jasper County, SC	32,186	30.3 min	8.6%	7:24 AM
Effingham County, GA	69,143	31.3 min	6.5%	7:10 AM
Beaufort County, SC	195,246	20.2 min	13.2%	7:43 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Chatham County, Georgia.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Chatham County, Georgia?

Commuters here spend an estimated 175 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,422 at a typical national wage. That's 11% less than the typical Georgia commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Chatham County, Georgia?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Chatham County, Georgia. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How do commute times compare across counties in Georgia?

Among counties in Georgia, the shortest average commutes are in Chattahoochee County (8.6 min), Ben Hill County (12.7 min), Tift County (15.8 min). The longest are in Talbot County (40.8 min), McIntosh County (37.7 min), Paulding County (36.4 min).