Pricing
Map Drive-Time Zone10-min drive time • PDF report

Mills County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

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

You 9/24/26, 8:09 PM
What does a typical morning commute look like in Mills County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:09 PM

Commute Time Burden in Mills County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Mills County spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 222 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 57% more time on the road than the Iowa average of 17.0 minutes each way, a difference of 9.7 minutes.

Mills County holds about 0.5% of Iowa's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Mills County would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,755 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)
Mills County 26.7 min 53.3 min 222 hrs/yr $6,887 709
Iowa 17.0 min 33.9 min 141 hrs/yr $4,382 606
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: Iowa Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Iowa
  1. Sioux County (10.1 min)
  2. Union County (10.4 min)
  3. Cass County (10.6 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Iowa
  1. Monroe County (30.4 min)
  2. Madison County (30.1 min)
  3. Mills County (26.7 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Mills County
Click a county to open it Explore the map →
Average commute time

On average, it takes 26.7 minutes to get to work in Mills County. That's 19% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest counties in Iowa

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 10.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Mills County

  • Car: 84.8%
  • Worked at Home: 10.1%
  • Walked: 4.5%
  • Other: 0.4%
  • Bicycle: 0.1%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Mills County: 3.5 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Mills County: 52057058.5 times less than the Iowa average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Mills County, versus 0.2% in Iowa.

Commute Mode Trends in Mills County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Mills 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 Bicycle Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle
2009 87.5% 5.2% 6.6% 0.4% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2010 88.5% 5.4% 5.2% 0.6% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2011 89.4% 6.4% 3.3% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2012 88.4% 6.2% 3.2% 1.0% 0.0% 1.0% 0.0% 0.2%
2013 90.5% 4.9% 2.6% 1.0% 0.0% 0.9% 0.0% 0.1%
2014 90.9% 3.9% 2.5% 0.9% 0.0% 1.7% 0.0% 0.2%
2015 90.2% 4.1% 2.4% 0.7% 0.0% 2.1% 0.0% 0.5%
2016 90.4% 4.5% 1.7% 0.9% 0.0% 2.4% 0.0% 0.2%
2017 91.5% 4.2% 1.9% 0.6% 0.0% 1.7% 0.0% 0.1%
2018 90.6% 4.2% 2.1% 0.8% 0.0% 2.2% 0.0% 0.1%
2019 90.2% 5.3% 2.7% 0.8% 0.0% 0.8% 0.0% 0.2%
2020 86.6% 6.5% 5.3% 0.8% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 86.7% 6.7% 5.4% 0.4% 0.2% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 86.4% 7.6% 5.4% 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 85.2% 9.5% 5.0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 84.8% 10.1% 4.5% 0.4% 0.1% 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 peaked in 2017 at 91.5%. Overall it fell from 87.5% in 2009 to 84.8% in 2024, down 2.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Mills County: its share of workers rose from 5.2% in 2009 to 10.1% in 2024, up 4.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.6% to 4.5% of workers (down 2.1 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2010 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 2.4% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Mills County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Mills County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM
2.5%
5:00-5:29 AM
3.8%
5:30-5:59 AM
7.4%
6:00-6:29 AM
9.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
15.9%
7:00-7:29 AM
20.2%
7:30-7:59 AM
15.6%
8:00-8:29 AM
6.2%
8:30-8:59 AM
1.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.7%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.7%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM
5.0%
4:00-11:59 PM
3.9%

Mills County Iowa Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Mills County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.1% across Iowa. Early starts are less common than in Iowa: 13.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.9% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Iowa: 57.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 51.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.0%) 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 Mills 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 Mills 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 Mills County next to Iowa 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 Mills County Iowa United States
2009 7:23 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:23 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:18 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:22 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:25 AM 7:34 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:24 AM 7:33 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:23 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:24 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:22 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:23 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:19 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:18 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:17 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:13 AM 7:31 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:12 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:16 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Mills County were on the road by 7:16 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:23 AM). The shift is sharper than across Iowa, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Mills County now leave 22 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 Mills County has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Mills County's commute time compare?

Metric Mills County Iowa US Average
Avg. Commute Time 26.7 min 17.0 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 10.1% 11.3% 15.0%
Walked 4.5% 2.9% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 0.7% 3.2%

The average commute time in Mills County is 26.7 minutes, longer than the 17.0 minutes in Iowa.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in Iowa. 4.5% commute by walking, higher than the 2.9% in Iowa.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Mills County, IA Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Mills County, IA is the 4th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 14,568 residents against a local median of 27,161. Where Mills County, IA breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 45% above the local median of 18.4 min at 26.7 min. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 12.6 min on one-way commute, so Mills County, IA sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Mills County, IA has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Mills County, IA 14,568 26.7 min #5/6 10.1% #3/6 7:16 AM #2/6
Fremont County, IA 6,514 18.4 min 8.1% 7:27 AM
Pottawattamie County, IA 93,423 18.1 min 9.8% 7:27 AM
Montgomery County, IA 10,214 15.4 min 10.0% 7:24 AM
Sarpy County, NE 197,392 20.7 min 13.5% 7:32 AM
Cass County, NE 27,161 28.0 min 12.3% 7:15 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Mills County, Iowa.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Mills County, Iowa?

Commuters here spend an estimated 222 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,887 at a typical national wage. That's 57% more than the typical Iowa commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Mills County, Iowa?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Mills County, Iowa. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

How common is public transit use in Mills County, Iowa?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.7% in Iowa, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Iowa?

Among counties in Iowa, the shortest average commutes are in Sioux County (10.1 min), Union County (10.4 min), Cass County (10.6 min). The longest are in Monroe County (30.4 min), Madison County (30.1 min), Mills County (26.7 min).