Nobles County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Nobles County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Nobles County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 106 hours, about 4.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 38% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.6 minutes.

Nobles County holds about 0.4% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Nobles County would save about 42 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,311 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)
Nobles County	12.7 min	25.4 min	106 hrs/yr	$3,278	280
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 12.7 minutes to get to work in Nobles County. That's 43% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 88% 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 6.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Nobles County

• Car: 87.5%
• Worked at Home: 6.4%
• Walked: 3.3%
• Public Transportation: 1.6%
• Other: 1.0%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Commute Mode Trends in Nobles County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Nobles 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
• Public Transportation
• Other
• Bicycle
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	84.8%	5.4%	5.1%	0.6%	3.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.5%
2010	85.2%	4.7%	4.7%	0.7%	3.3%	0.4%	0.5%	0.5%
2011	84.1%	4.6%	4.7%	0.8%	4.2%	0.2%	0.6%	0.7%
2012	86.9%	4.6%	4.3%	0.9%	2.4%	0.1%	0.3%	0.4%
2013	87.2%	4.6%	3.8%	0.8%	2.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%
2014	87.9%	4.4%	4.0%	0.5%	2.2%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%
2015	88.5%	4.3%	3.6%	0.3%	2.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	90.6%	4.3%	3.5%	0.2%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%	0.2%
2017	90.3%	4.2%	3.2%	0.4%	0.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.2%
2018	89.6%	4.3%	4.1%	0.3%	0.7%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%
2019	90.7%	4.4%	3.5%	0.4%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2020	88.5%	5.4%	3.9%	1.0%	0.8%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	86.8%	5.5%	5.1%	1.1%	1.0%	0.1%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	87.7%	5.4%	4.8%	1.0%	0.9%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	87.0%	6.0%	4.7%	1.1%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	87.5%	6.4%	3.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.3%	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 2019 at 90.7% and lowest in 2011 at 84.1%. Overall it rose from 84.8% in 2009 to 87.5% in 2024, up 2.7 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Nobles County: its share of workers rose from 5.4% in 2009 to 6.4% in 2024, up 1.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.1% to 3.3% of workers (down 1.8 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Nobles County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Nobles County?

The bars show when commuters in Nobles 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 Nobles County4.7% Minnesota5.0%	4.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Nobles County6.9% Minnesota3.8%	6.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Nobles County4.5% Minnesota5.2%	4.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Nobles County9.8% Minnesota8.4%	9.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Nobles County10.1% Minnesota10.2%	10.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Nobles County17.5% Minnesota14.8%	17.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Nobles County16.1% Minnesota13.8%	16.1%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Nobles County6.7% Minnesota10.4%	6.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Nobles County3.0% Minnesota4.7%	3.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Nobles County2.3% Minnesota5.8%	2.3%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Nobles County1.2% Minnesota2.7%	1.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Nobles County0.6% Minnesota1.3%	0.6%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Nobles County10.2% Minnesota8.2%	10.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Nobles County6.3% Minnesota5.8%	6.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Nobles County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 17.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 16.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush looks much like Minnesota's: 50.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.6%) 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 Nobles 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 Nobles 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 Nobles 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.

• Nobles County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Nobles County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:42 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:22 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:24 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:25 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:33 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:28 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:24 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Nobles County were on the road by 7:24 AM, 16 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:40 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Nobles County now leave 14 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Nobles County's commute time compare?

Metric	Nobles County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.7 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	6.4%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	3.3%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.6%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Nobles County is 12.7 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

1.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 3.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau