Jackson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Jackson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Jackson County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 134 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 21% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.2 minutes.

Jackson County holds about 0.2% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.1% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Jackson County would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,664 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	16.1 min	32.2 min	134 hrs/yr	$4,161	312
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 16.1 minutes to get to work in Jackson County. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 10.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Jackson County

• Car: 84.7%
• Worked at Home: 10.1%
• Walked: 4.4%
• Other: 0.5%
• Public Transportation: 0.3% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

Public transit is unusually rare in Jackson County: 5.6 times less than the Minnesota average (0.3% vs 1.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Jackson County, versus 0.2% in Minnesota.

Biking is unusually rare in Jackson County: 6.0 times less than the Minnesota average (0.1% vs 0.5%).

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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.1%	8.2%	3.3%	0.6%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2010	86.4%	8.7%	2.8%	0.5%	1.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	86.9%	8.3%	2.9%	1.0%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	85.7%	9.2%	3.3%	1.0%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	87.5%	7.4%	3.3%	1.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	88.4%	7.3%	3.2%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	88.9%	6.7%	3.0%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2016	89.7%	6.3%	3.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	90.5%	6.2%	2.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	88.0%	6.5%	4.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	87.5%	6.3%	5.2%	0.5%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	87.2%	6.7%	5.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	85.8%	6.8%	6.9%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	85.0%	7.3%	6.9%	0.4%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	84.8%	9.4%	4.9%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	84.7%	10.1%	4.4%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%	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 2017 at 90.5%. Overall it fell from 86.1% in 2009 to 84.7% in 2024, down 1.4 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Jackson County: its share of workers rose from 8.2% in 2009 to 10.1% in 2024, up 1.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.2% to 0.3% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 6.9% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 4.4%.

Commute Start Times in Jackson County

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 Minnesota for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Jackson County8.5% Minnesota5.0%	8.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Jackson County3.6% Minnesota3.8%	3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Jackson County6.5% Minnesota5.2%	6.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Jackson County7.5% Minnesota8.4%	7.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Jackson County8.9% Minnesota10.2%	8.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Jackson County16.7% Minnesota14.8%	16.7%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Jackson County22.2% Minnesota13.8%	22.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Jackson County8.8% Minnesota10.4%	8.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Jackson County2.1% Minnesota4.7%	2.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Jackson County3.6% Minnesota5.8%	3.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Jackson County1.7% Minnesota2.7%	1.7%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Jackson County0.2% Minnesota1.3%	0.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Jackson County6.9% Minnesota8.2%	6.9%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Jackson County2.9% Minnesota5.8%	2.9%

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

The busiest time to head out in Jackson County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 22.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 18.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Minnesota: 56.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.3%) 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 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 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.

• Jackson County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Jackson County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:23 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	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:23 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:24 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:30 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Jackson County were on the road by 7:27 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:30 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Jackson County now leave 11 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Jackson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Jackson County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.1 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	10.1%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	4.4%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Jackson County is 16.1 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 4.4% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau