Dakota County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Dakota 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, 1:41 PM

Is the commute in Dakota County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 1:41 PM

Commute Time Burden in Dakota County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Dakota County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 184 hours, about 7.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.

Dakota County holds about 7.8% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 8.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Dakota County would save about 73 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,276 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)
Dakota County	22.0 min	44.0 min	184 hrs/yr	$5,690	2,063
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

Dakota County

Click a county to open it Explore the map →

Average commute time

On average, it takes 22.0 minutes to get to work in Dakota County. That's 2% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 80% of counties in Minnesota

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 21.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Dakota County

Commute Mode Trends in Dakota County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Dakota 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	Public Transportation	Walked	Other	Taxi	Bicycle	Motorcycle
2009	90.9%	4.0%	3.0%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.1%
2010	90.6%	4.2%	3.1%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2011	90.5%	4.3%	3.1%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2012	90.4%	4.4%	3.2%	1.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2013	90.2%	4.4%	3.2%	1.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2014	90.0%	4.5%	3.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.1%	0.3%	0.2%
2015	89.8%	4.7%	3.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2016	89.5%	5.0%	3.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.2%
2017	89.5%	5.0%	3.3%	1.1%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	89.3%	5.1%	3.3%	1.2%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	88.9%	5.5%	3.2%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2020	86.0%	8.6%	3.1%	1.3%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2021	82.7%	12.4%	2.6%	1.2%	0.6%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	79.6%	15.8%	2.2%	1.3%	0.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	77.0%	18.9%	1.7%	1.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	75.1%	21.3%	1.2%	1.1%	0.7%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.9% in 2009 to 75.1% in 2024, down 15.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Dakota County: its share of workers rose from 4.0% in 2009 to 21.3% in 2024, up 17.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 15.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 3.0% to 1.2% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Dakota County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Dakota County?

The bars show when commuters in Dakota 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		3.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM		4.6%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.5%
9:00-9:59 AM		6.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.8%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Dakota County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are less common than in Minnesota: 12.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Minnesota's: 49.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.3%) 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 Dakota 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 Dakota 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 Dakota 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	Dakota County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:32 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:34 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:35 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Dakota County were on the road by 7:38 AM, 7 minutes later than in 2009 (7:31 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Dakota County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Dakota County has moved 7 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Dakota County in the whole series.

How does Dakota County's commute time compare?

Metric	Dakota County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.0 min	20.3 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	21.3%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.1%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.2%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Dakota County is 22.0 minutes, longer than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

1.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 1.1% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Dakota County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Dakota County, MN is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 445,396 residents against a local median of 154,543. Dakota County, MN sits close to the middle of its own neighbourhood. No measure below is more than 15% off the local median, so the choice between these counties turns on things this data does not capture.

The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 8% above the local median at 22.0 min against 20.4 min. Dakota County, MN has the 4th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Dakota County, MN	445,396	22.0 min #4/6	21.3% #2/6	7:38 AM #5/6
Ramsey County, MN	542,690	20.4 min	20.5%	7:55 AM
Rice County, MN	67,917	17.3 min	12.0%	7:32 AM
Washington County, MN	276,224	22.6 min	23.6%	7:34 AM
Goodhue County, MN	47,943	20.1 min	10.7%	7:18 AM
Scott County, MN	154,543	23.2 min	19.7%	7:30 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Dakota County, Minnesota.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 184 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,690 at a typical national wage. That's 8% more than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Dakota County, Minnesota. 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.

Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in Minnesota?

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).