Brown County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 8:33 PM

How many minutes is the average drive to work in Brown County?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:33 PM

Commute Time Burden in Brown County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Brown County spend about 21 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 88 hours, about 3.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 48% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 9.8 minutes.

Brown County holds about 0.5% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Brown County would save about 35 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,091 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)
Brown County	10.6 min	21.1 min	88 hrs/yr	$2,726	363
Minnesota	20.3 min	40.6 min	169 hrs/yr	$5,249	854
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: Minnesota Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Minnesota

Brown County (10.6 min)
Pennington County (10.8 min)
Cottonwood County (10.9 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Minnesota

Chisago County (30.9 min)
Wright County (28.8 min)
Sherburne County (28.8 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Brown County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 10.6 minutes to get to work in Brown County. That's 53% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Fastest county in Minnesota

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Brown County

Public transit is unusually rare in Brown County: 4.5 times less than the Minnesota average (0.4% vs 1.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Brown County: 26.8 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Brown County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Brown 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	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Motorcycle	Taxi
2009	85.0%	6.6%	6.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.5%	0.1%
2010	85.6%	6.4%	5.7%	0.5%	0.4%	0.9%	0.6%	0.0%
2011	86.0%	5.9%	6.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%
2012	85.6%	6.8%	5.8%	0.2%	0.4%	0.9%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	85.6%	7.2%	5.5%	0.2%	0.5%	0.7%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	84.8%	7.8%	5.5%	0.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2015	85.6%	7.3%	5.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2016	85.4%	7.6%	5.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%
2017	86.3%	7.0%	5.0%	0.3%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%
2018	86.6%	7.4%	4.6%	0.4%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	87.6%	7.8%	3.4%	0.2%	0.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	87.1%	8.8%	3.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	87.4%	8.5%	3.1%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	87.9%	7.7%	3.2%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	87.0%	7.6%	4.1%	0.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	86.6%	7.3%	4.8%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2022 at 87.9% and lowest in 2014 at 84.8%. Overall it rose from 85.0% in 2009 to 86.6% in 2024, up 1.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Brown County: its share of workers rose from 6.6% in 2009 to 7.3% in 2024, up 0.7 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 6.0% to 4.8% of workers (down 1.2 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 8.8% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 7.3%.

Commute Start Times in Brown County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Brown County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		4.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		10.0%
6:30-6:59 AM		9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		17.6%
7:30-7:59 AM		18.8%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.7%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.8%
9:00-9:59 AM		2.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.3%
11:00-11:59 AM		0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.8%

Brown County Minnesota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Brown County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 16.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 52.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.9%) 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 Brown 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 Brown 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 Brown County next to Minnesota 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	Brown County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:29 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:27 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:26 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:25 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Brown County were on the road by 7:24 AM, 7 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:30 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Brown County now leave 14 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 Brown County has moved 2 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Brown County in the whole series.

How does Brown County's commute time compare?

Metric	Brown County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	10.6 min	20.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.3%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	4.8%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Brown County is 10.6 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 4.8% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Brown County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Brown County, MN is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 25,800 residents against a local median of 13,610. The measure that sets Brown County, MN apart most is work from home: 7.3%, 32% below the local median of 10.7%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 10.6 min against a local median of 13.5 min, 22% below it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 22% below the local median it puts Brown County, MN at the better end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 5.3% on work from home, so Brown County, MN sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Brown County, MN has the 6th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Brown County, MN	25,800	10.6 min #1/6	7.3% #6/6	7:24 AM #2/6
Watonwan County, MN	11,205	17.4 min	8.1%	7:20 AM
Nicollet County, MN	34,262	13.5 min	13.4%	7:35 AM
Cottonwood County, MN	11,447	10.9 min	10.7%	7:27 AM
Renville County, MN	14,558	16.5 min	8.2%	7:25 AM
Redwood County, MN	13,610	12.9 min	11.0%	7:29 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Brown County, Minnesota.

Is living in Brown County, Minnesota good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 88 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $2,726 at a typical national wage. That's 48% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Brown County, Minnesota?

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

Do people use public transit in Brown County, Minnesota?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.4% of commuters use it versus 1.8% in Minnesota, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Minnesota have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Minnesota, the shortest average commutes are in Brown County (10.6 min), Pennington County (10.8 min), Cottonwood County (10.9 min). The longest are in Chisago County (30.9 min), Wright County (28.8 min), Sherburne County (28.8 min).