Wilkes County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Wilkes County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wilkes County spend about 60 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 252 hours, about 10.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 28% more time on the road than the Georgia average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 6.5 minutes.

Wilkes County holds about 0.1% of Georgia's population and accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wilkes County would save about 101 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,120 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)
Wilkes County	30.2 min	60.4 min	252 hrs/yr	$7,799	395
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

Compare commute times among different counties

N

On average, it takes 30.2 minutes to get to work in Wilkes County. That's 35% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 80% of counties in Georgia

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 2.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wilkes County

• Car: 95.5%
• Worked at Home: 2.9% unusually low
• Walked: 0.9%
• Other: 0.4%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Wilkes County, versus 0.1% in Georgia.

Public transit is unusually rare in Wilkes County: 4.0 times less than the Georgia average (0.3% vs 1.1%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Wilkes County, versus 0.4% in Georgia.

Working from home is unusually rare in Wilkes County: 5.4 times less than the Georgia average (2.9% vs 15.9%).

Biking is essentially absent in Wilkes County, versus 0.2% in Georgia.

Commute Mode Trends in Wilkes County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Wilkes 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	90.3%	1.8%	6.0%	0.5%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	86.0%	2.9%	6.9%	0.6%	0.9%	2.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	90.0%	2.0%	6.2%	0.7%	1.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	92.0%	0.9%	5.7%	0.2%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	94.0%	1.1%	3.2%	0.0%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	91.6%	1.3%	5.1%	0.3%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	93.5%	1.7%	3.0%	0.4%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	93.6%	2.2%	3.1%	0.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	92.7%	3.1%	3.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	93.3%	2.5%	3.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	95.0%	3.3%	1.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	95.2%	2.6%	1.4%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	95.0%	2.7%	1.3%	0.9%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	94.4%	3.7%	0.8%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	92.0%	5.5%	1.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	95.5%	2.9%	0.9%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share bottomed out in 2010 at 86.0%. Overall it rose from 90.3% in 2009 to 95.5% in 2024, up 5.2 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Wilkes County: its share of workers rose from 1.8% in 2009 to 2.9% in 2024, up 1.1 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.0% to 0.9% of workers (down 5.1 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2019 release and has stayed ahead since.

Taking a taxi peaked at 2.7% in 2010 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Wilkes County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wilkes County?

The bars show when commuters in Wilkes 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	12:00-4:59 AM Wilkes County4.4% Georgia5.2%	4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Wilkes County6.2% Georgia3.9%	6.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Wilkes County1.7% Georgia4.6%	1.7%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Wilkes County10.2% Georgia9.4%	10.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Wilkes County8.2% Georgia9.6%	8.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Wilkes County18.9% Georgia14.9%	18.9%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Wilkes County21.3% Georgia11.5%	21.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Wilkes County9.2% Georgia11.6%	9.2%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Wilkes County3.7% Georgia5.1%	3.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Wilkes County2.6% Georgia6.7%	2.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Wilkes County2.2% Georgia3.1%	2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Wilkes County0.0% Georgia1.4%	0.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Wilkes County4.6% Georgia6.4%	4.6%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Wilkes County6.7% Georgia6.7%	6.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wilkes County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 21.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.5% across Georgia. Early starts are less common than in Georgia: 12.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Georgia: 57.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.5% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.1%) 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 Wilkes 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 Wilkes 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 Wilkes 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.

• Wilkes County
• Georgia
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Wilkes County	Georgia	United States
2009	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:31 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:36 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:32 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:18 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:14 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wilkes County were on the road by 7:31 AM, 4 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:34 AM). Across Georgia, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Wilkes County now leave 7 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 Wilkes County has moved 13 minutes later.

How does Wilkes County's commute time compare?

Metric	Wilkes County	Georgia	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	30.2 min	23.6 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	2.9%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Wilkes County is 30.2 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Georgia.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Georgia. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.3% in Georgia.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau