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Pope County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 10/22/26, 12:07 AM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Pope County?
Map AI 10/22/26, 12:07 AM

Commute Time Burden in Pope County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Pope County spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 258 hours, about 10.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 31% more time on the road than the Illinois average of 23.6 minutes each way, a difference of 7.4 minutes.

Pope 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 Pope County would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,204 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)
Pope County 31.0 min 62.0 min 258 hrs/yr $8,011 627
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Illinois
  1. Edgar County (12.0 min)
  2. Brown County (12.7 min)
  3. Morgan County (13.1 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Illinois
  1. Calhoun County (43.8 min)
  2. Pulaski County (31.2 min)
  3. Pope County (31.0 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Pope County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 31.0 minutes to get to work in Pope County. That's 38% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 3 slowest 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 working from home. About 10.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Pope County

  • Car: 89.0% unusually high
  • Worked at Home: 10.0%
  • Other: 0.7%
  • Walked: 0.2% unusually low
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Driving is 21% more common in Pope County than the Illinois average (89.0% vs 73.7%).

Walking is unusually rare in Pope County: 12.3 times less than the Illinois average (0.2% vs 2.8%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Pope County, versus 5.8% in Illinois.

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

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

Few people walk or bike to work in Pope County: just 0.2%, 14.7 times below the Illinois average of 3.3%.

Commute Mode Trends in Pope County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Pope 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 Other Walked Public Transportation Taxi Motorcycle Bicycle
2009 90.8% 6.4% 0.8% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2010 93.2% 5.8% 0.4% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2011 89.9% 5.7% 0.6% 3.6% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2012 91.6% 4.9% 0.9% 2.5% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 89.7% 5.2% 1.0% 3.8% 0.1% 0.0% 0.2% 0.0%
2014 86.7% 8.3% 1.3% 3.2% 0.1% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2015 87.2% 6.5% 1.3% 3.9% 0.8% 0.0% 0.4% 0.0%
2016 90.6% 4.9% 1.0% 2.0% 0.9% 0.0% 0.6% 0.0%
2017 89.0% 5.9% 1.7% 1.7% 0.9% 0.0% 0.7% 0.0%
2018 91.1% 5.4% 1.8% 0.4% 1.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2019 91.0% 4.3% 2.5% 0.8% 1.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 90.8% 5.7% 2.1% 1.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 90.0% 7.6% 2.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 90.3% 7.9% 1.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 90.8% 8.5% 0.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 89.0% 10.0% 0.7% 0.2% 0.0% 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 2010 at 93.2% and lowest in 2014 at 86.7%. Overall it fell from 90.8% in 2009 to 89.0% in 2024, down 1.8 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Pope County: its share of workers rose from 6.4% in 2009 to 10.0% in 2024, up 3.6 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.0% to 0.2% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 1.4% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Pope County

  • Rush-Hour RegularsThe highest share of rush-hour departures among Illinois's 102 counties: 61.6% of commuters leave between 6:30 and 8:29 AM.
  • Hitting SnoozeThe 3rd-biggest shift to later mornings among Illinois's 102 counties: the typical start is 20 minutes later than in 2009.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pope County?

The bars show when commuters in Pope 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
2.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM
6.0%
6:00-6:29 AM
5.2%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.7%
7:00-7:29 AM
22.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
7.0%
8:00-8:29 AM
21.8%
8:30-8:59 AM
1.7%
9:00-9:59 AM
5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.5%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.3%
12:00-3:59 PM
8.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
1.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Pope County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 22.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.3% across Illinois. Early starts are less common than in Illinois: 12.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.8% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Illinois: 61.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.5% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (19.1%) 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 Pope 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 Pope 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 Pope 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.
Show typical departure times by year
Year Pope County Illinois United States
2009 7:10 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:08 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:06 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:12 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:15 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:19 AM 7:36 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:19 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:24 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:28 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:41 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:34 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:47 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:40 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:34 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:30 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:30 AM 7:36 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Pope County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 20 minutes later than in 2009 (7:10 AM). The shift is sharper than across Illinois, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Pope County now leave 8 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 Pope County has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Pope County's commute time compare?

Metric Pope County Illinois US Average
Avg. Commute Time 31.0 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 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 10.0% 15.9% 15.0%
Walked 0.2% 2.8% 2.4%
Public Transit < 0.1% 5.8% 3.2%

The average commute time in Pope County is 31.0 minutes, longer than the 23.6 minutes in Illinois.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 5.8% in Illinois. 0.2% commute by walking, lower than the 2.8% in Illinois.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Pope County, IL Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Pope County, IL is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 3,739 residents against a local median of 13,376. Pope County, IL's work from home, at 10.0%, runs 110% above the 4.8% typical of the counties around it.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 31.0 min against a local median of 23.1 min, 34% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 34% above the local median it puts Pope County, IL at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves sit within 3.2% of each other on work from home, a tighter band than the gap between any of them and Pope County, IL, which makes it a genuine outlier here rather than one end of a wide local spread. Pope County, IL has the highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Pope County, IL 3,739 31.0 min #6/6 10.0% #1/6 7:29 AM #4/6
Massac County, IL 13,864 18.6 min 5.3% 8:05 AM
Livingston County, KY 8,899 26.9 min 4.9% 6:52 AM
Hardin County, IL 3,602 23.1 min 2.2% 7:27 AM
Johnson County, IL 13,376 30.0 min 4.8% 7:46 AM
Saline County, IL 23,213 17.4 min 4.2% 7:28 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Pope County, Illinois.

Is commuting expensive in Pope County, Illinois?

Commuters here spend an estimated 258 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,011 at a typical national wage. That's 31% more than the typical Illinois commuter spends.

What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Pope County, Illinois?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Pope County, Illinois. 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 common is public transit use in Pope County, Illinois?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 5.8% in Illinois, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

How do commute times compare across counties in Illinois?

Among counties in Illinois, the shortest average commutes are in Edgar County (12.0 min), Brown County (12.7 min), Morgan County (13.1 min). The longest are in Calhoun County (43.8 min), Pulaski County (31.2 min), Pope County (31.0 min).