McHenry County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in McHenry County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in McHenry County spend about 54 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 224 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 3.2 minutes.

McHenry County holds about 2.5% of Illinois's population but accounts for roughly 2.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in McHenry County would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,774 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)
McHenry County	26.8 min	53.7 min	224 hrs/yr	$6,935	2,613
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

N

On average, it takes 26.8 minutes to get to work in McHenry County. That's 20% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 90% of counties in Illinois

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 16.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in McHenry County

• Car: 80.6%
• Worked at Home: 16.1%
• Public Transportation: 1.3% unusually low
• Walked: 1.1%
• Other: 0.6%
• Taxi: 0.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in McHenry County: 4.4 times less than the Illinois average (1.3% vs 5.8%).

Biking is unusually rare in McHenry County: 9.4 times less than the Illinois average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in McHenry County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in McHenry 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
• Public Transportation
• Walked
• Other
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	89.6%	5.1%	2.9%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2010	89.2%	5.5%	2.7%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	89.6%	5.1%	2.8%	1.5%	0.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	89.8%	5.1%	2.8%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2013	89.9%	5.3%	2.7%	1.3%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2014	89.8%	5.5%	2.7%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2015	89.8%	5.5%	2.9%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	89.6%	5.8%	2.7%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	89.7%	5.9%	2.6%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	89.1%	6.4%	2.7%	0.8%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2019	89.6%	6.2%	2.5%	0.8%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.2%
2020	88.2%	8.1%	2.0%	0.7%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	85.4%	11.0%	1.8%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	83.4%	13.1%	1.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	82.0%	14.7%	1.4%	1.0%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	80.6%	16.1%	1.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2013 at 89.9%. Overall it fell from 89.6% in 2009 to 80.6% in 2024, down 9.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in McHenry County: its share of workers rose from 5.1% in 2009 to 16.1% in 2024, up 11.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 9.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 2.9% to 1.3% of workers (down 1.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in McHenry County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in McHenry County?

The bars show when commuters in McHenry 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 McHenry County5.8% Illinois5.6%	5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM McHenry County5.2% Illinois4.3%	5.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM McHenry County6.6% Illinois4.9%	6.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM McHenry County10.6% Illinois9.0%	10.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM McHenry County11.5% Illinois9.4%	11.5%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM McHenry County14.8% Illinois14.3%	14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM McHenry County10.4% Illinois11.6%	10.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM McHenry County9.5% Illinois11.2%	9.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM McHenry County4.6% Illinois5.2%	4.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM McHenry County5.2% Illinois6.1%	5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM McHenry County2.5% Illinois2.9%	2.5%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM McHenry County1.4% Illinois1.5%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM McHenry County6.4% Illinois7.7%	6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM McHenry County5.4% Illinois6.3%	5.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in McHenry County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are more common than in Illinois: 17.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush looks much like Illinois's: 46.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.0%) 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 McHenry 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 McHenry 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 McHenry 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.

• McHenry County
• Illinois
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	McHenry County	Illinois	United States
2009	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:21 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:20 AM	7:35 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in McHenry County were on the road by 7:21 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across Illinois, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in McHenry County now leave 17 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does McHenry County's commute time compare?

Metric	McHenry County	Illinois	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	26.8 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	16.1%	15.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	5.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in McHenry County is 26.8 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau