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Jackson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 5:44 PM
How long is the round-trip commute in Jackson County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 5:44 PM

Commute Time Burden in Jackson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jackson County spend about 64 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 268 hours, about 11.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 55% more time on the road than the Kentucky average of 20.8 minutes each way, a difference of 11.4 minutes.

Jackson County holds about 0.3% of Kentucky's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jackson County would save about 107 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,328 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)
Jackson County 32.2 min 64.4 min 268 hrs/yr $8,321 262
Kentucky 20.8 min 41.6 min 173 hrs/yr $5,369 832
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: Kentucky Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Kentucky
  1. Calloway County (13.9 min)
  2. Owsley County (15.0 min)
  3. Taylor County (15.3 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Kentucky
  1. Owen County (37.7 min)
  2. Spencer County (33.3 min)
  3. Bracken County (33.2 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Jackson County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 32.2 minutes to get to work in Jackson County. That's 44% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Kentucky

The most common departure window is 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jackson County

  • Car: 88.0%
  • Worked at Home: 7.9%
  • Walked: 2.6%
  • Other: 0.8%
  • Public Transportation: 0.8%
  • Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
  • Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Jackson County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Jackson County, versus 0.1% in Kentucky.

Biking is essentially absent in Jackson County, versus 0.2% in Kentucky.

Commute Mode Trends in Jackson County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Jackson 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 Public Transportation Other Taxi Motorcycle Bicycle
2009 92.3% 3.4% 1.7% 0.3% 2.3% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2010 92.2% 3.1% 2.2% 0.6% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2011 92.8% 3.0% 1.0% 0.7% 2.4% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2012 95.7% 1.2% 0.4% 1.5% 1.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2013 94.5% 0.9% 0.7% 1.8% 2.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2014 93.8% 1.1% 1.4% 2.4% 1.3% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2015 96.0% 0.7% 0.8% 1.4% 0.9% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2016 93.9% 0.9% 0.9% 3.4% 0.7% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2017 93.0% 1.9% 1.0% 2.5% 1.7% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2018 93.3% 3.1% 0.8% 1.9% 0.8% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2019 93.6% 3.0% 1.3% 1.2% 0.9% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2020 88.9% 5.0% 4.2% 1.2% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2021 90.8% 4.7% 2.6% 0.9% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2022 89.5% 5.3% 3.0% 1.9% 0.2% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2023 89.2% 6.1% 2.8% 0.9% 1.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
2024 88.0% 7.9% 2.6% 0.8% 0.8% 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 2015 at 96.0%. Overall it fell from 92.3% in 2009 to 88.0% in 2024, down 4.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Jackson County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit peaked at 3.4% in 2016 and has since fallen back to 0.8%.

Commute Start Times in Jackson County

  • Hitting SnoozeThe biggest shift to later mornings among Kentucky's 120 counties: the typical start is 54 minutes later than in 2009.
  • Sleeping InThe 3rd-highest share of 9 AM-or-later starts among Kentucky's 120 counties: 33.5% of commuters leave at 9 AM or later.

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Jackson County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM
7.3%
5:00-5:29 AM
8.3%
5:30-5:59 AM
4.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
4.8%
6:30-6:59 AM
6.4%
7:00-7:29 AM
10.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM
9.4%
8:30-8:59 AM
2.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
3.4%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM
0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM
10.4%
4:00-11:59 PM
16.1%

Jackson County Kentucky Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Jackson County is 4:00-11:59 PM, when 16.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 8.4% across Kentucky. Early starts are more common than in Kentucky: 19.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 15.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Kentucky: 39.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (33.5%) 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 Jackson 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 Jackson 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 Jackson County next to Kentucky 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 Jackson County Kentucky United States
2009 6:55 AM 7:35 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:01 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:09 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:05 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:03 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:03 AM 7:35 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:07 AM 7:35 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:03 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2017 6:59 AM 7:34 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:07 AM 7:34 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:01 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:15 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:18 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:15 AM 7:33 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:25 AM 7:32 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:49 AM 7:33 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jackson County were on the road by 7:49 AM, 55 minutes later than in 2009 (6:55 AM). That goes against the trend across Kentucky, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Jackson County now leave 11 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Jackson County has moved 48 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Jackson County in the whole series.

How does Jackson County's commute time compare?

Metric Jackson County Kentucky US Average
Avg. Commute Time 32.2 min 20.8 min 22.4 min
Departure Window 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home 7.9% 10.2% 15.0%
Walked 2.6% 2.0% 2.4%
Public Transit 0.8% 0.6% 3.2%

The average commute time in Jackson County is 32.2 minutes, longer than the 20.8 minutes in Kentucky.

0.8% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.6% in Kentucky. 2.6% commute by walking, higher than the 2.0% in Kentucky.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Jackson County, KY Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Jackson County, KY is typical in size for this group, 13,086 residents against a local median of 14,035, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Jackson County, KY's one-way commute, at 32.2 min, runs 42% above the 22.7 min typical of the counties around it. That is the weaker end of the local range on this measure.

The counties themselves spread 12.5 min on one-way commute, so Jackson County, KY sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Jackson County, KY has the 6th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area Population One-way commute Work from home Typical departure
Jackson County, KY 13,086 32.2 min #6/6 7.9% #4/6 7:49 AM #6/6
Estill County, KY 14,035 27.5 min 7.0% 7:28 AM
Rockcastle County, KY 16,158 22.7 min 10.4% 7:18 AM
Owsley County, KY 3,971 15.0 min 9.1% 7:45 AM
Laurel County, KY 62,983 18.3 min 8.7% 7:45 AM
Lee County, KY 7,339 23.6 min 7.3% 7:15 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Jackson County, Kentucky.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Jackson County, Kentucky?

Commuters here spend an estimated 268 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $8,321 at a typical national wage. That's 55% more than the typical Kentucky commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Jackson County, Kentucky?

Traffic peaks between 04:00 PM – 11:59 PM in Jackson County, Kentucky. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Which counties in Kentucky have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Kentucky, the shortest average commutes are in Calloway County (13.9 min), Owsley County (15.0 min), Taylor County (15.3 min). The longest are in Owen County (37.7 min), Spencer County (33.3 min), Bracken County (33.2 min).