Hardin County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Hardin County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Hardin 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 193 hours, about 8.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 2% less time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 0.5 minutes.

Hardin County holds about 0.0% of Illinois's population and accounts for roughly 0.0% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Hardin County would save about 77 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,391 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)
Hardin County	23.1 min	46.3 min	193 hrs/yr	$5,979	166
Illinois	23.6 min	47.3 min	197 hrs/yr	$6,104	1,547
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: Illinois Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 23.1 minutes to get to work in Hardin County. That's 3% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 73% of counties in Illinois

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 walking. About 2.2% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Hardin County

• Car: 91.7% unusually high
• Walked: 3.6%
• Worked at Home: 2.2% unusually low
• Public Transportation: 1.3% unusually low
• Other: 1.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Hardin County, versus 0.1% in Illinois.

Driving is 25% more common in Hardin County than the Illinois average (91.7% vs 73.7%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Hardin County: 4.5 times less than the Illinois average (1.3% vs 5.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Hardin County, versus 0.3% in Illinois.

Working from home is unusually rare in Hardin County: 7.3 times less than the Illinois average (2.2% vs 15.9%).

Biking is essentially absent in Hardin County, versus 0.5% in Illinois.

Commute Mode Trends in Hardin County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Hardin 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
• Walked
• Worked at Home
• Public Transportation
• Other
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Walked	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	92.5%	2.0%	3.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2010	93.1%	1.0%	3.5%	0.8%	1.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2011	93.4%	1.1%	3.8%	0.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2012	91.4%	2.2%	4.6%	0.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	89.2%	2.3%	6.7%	0.1%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	90.4%	2.2%	5.5%	0.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	89.5%	2.1%	6.2%	0.8%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	89.3%	2.5%	5.7%	0.8%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	93.7%	1.8%	2.8%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	93.0%	1.3%	1.3%	3.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	92.6%	0.9%	2.2%	2.9%	1.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	92.4%	1.0%	2.7%	2.3%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	91.8%	0.3%	3.0%	3.9%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	91.4%	1.5%	1.3%	4.5%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.1%	1.7%	1.4%	1.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	91.7%	3.6%	2.2%	1.3%	1.2%	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 was highest in 2023 at 95.1% and lowest in 2013 at 89.2%. Overall it fell from 92.5% in 2009 to 91.7% in 2024, down 0.8 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Walking gained the most ground in Hardin County: its share of workers rose from 2.0% in 2009 to 3.6% in 2024, up 1.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 3.8% to 2.2% of workers (down 1.6 percentage points).

Walking overtook working from home to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Public transit peaked at 4.5% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 1.3%.

Commute Start Times in Hardin County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Hardin County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Hardin County7.7% Illinois5.6%	7.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Hardin County4.8% Illinois4.3%	4.8%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Hardin County1.9% Illinois4.9%	1.9%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Hardin County6.6% Illinois9.0%	6.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Hardin County10.8% Illinois9.4%	10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Hardin County20.0% Illinois14.3%	20.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Hardin County12.7% Illinois11.6%	12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Hardin County14.6% Illinois11.2%	14.6%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Hardin County2.2% Illinois5.2%	2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Hardin County1.9% Illinois6.1%	1.9%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Hardin County0.4% Illinois2.9%	0.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Hardin County0.7% Illinois1.5%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Hardin County9.8% Illinois7.7%	9.8%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Hardin County5.8% Illinois6.3%	5.8%

Hardin County Illinois Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Hardin County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 20.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are about as common as in Illinois: 14.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 58.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Hardin 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 Hardin 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 Hardin County next to Illinois 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.

• Hardin County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Hardin County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:16 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:02 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:06 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:18 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:07 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:04 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:14 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:03 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Hardin County were on the road by 7:27 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:40 AM). That goes against the trend across Illinois, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Hardin County now leave 10 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 Hardin County has moved 23 minutes later.

How does Hardin County's commute time compare?

Metric	Hardin County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.1 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	2.2%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	3.6%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Hardin County is 23.1 minutes, shorter than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 3.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau