Stearns County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Help

Commuting in Stearns 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, 8:21 PM

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

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:21 PM

Commute Time Burden in Stearns County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Stearns County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 143 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 15% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Stearns County holds about 2.8% of Minnesota's population but accounts for roughly 2.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Stearns County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,779 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)
Stearns County	17.2 min	34.4 min	143 hrs/yr	$4,447	813
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

Stearns County

Click a county to open it Explore the map →

Average commute time

On average, it takes 17.2 minutes to get to work in Stearns County. That's 23% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 10.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Stearns County

Commute Mode Trends in Stearns County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Stearns 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	Taxi	Bicycle	Other	Motorcycle
2009	86.3%	6.7%	4.4%	1.4%	0.0%	0.6%	0.5%	0.2%
2010	86.5%	6.9%	4.0%	1.4%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%
2011	87.2%	6.8%	3.5%	1.3%	0.1%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%
2012	87.0%	6.8%	3.6%	1.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%
2013	87.0%	6.6%	3.9%	1.5%	0.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%
2014	86.7%	6.8%	4.1%	1.4%	0.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%
2015	86.5%	6.2%	4.4%	1.6%	0.0%	0.7%	0.5%	0.1%
2016	86.4%	5.9%	4.8%	1.6%	0.1%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%
2017	87.0%	5.8%	4.6%	1.3%	0.1%	0.6%	0.5%	0.1%
2018	87.2%	5.6%	4.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%
2019	87.5%	5.3%	4.3%	1.5%	0.1%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%
2020	86.5%	6.3%	4.6%	1.5%	0.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%
2021	85.9%	7.0%	4.5%	1.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%
2022	83.6%	8.4%	5.0%	1.7%	0.3%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%
2023	83.2%	9.3%	4.5%	1.5%	0.4%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%
2024	82.6%	10.6%	4.3%	1.3%	0.4%	0.4%	0.4%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 87.5%. Overall it fell from 86.3% in 2009 to 82.6% in 2024, down 3.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Stearns County: its share of workers rose from 6.7% in 2009 to 10.6% in 2024, up 3.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Stearns County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Stearns County?

The bars show when commuters in Stearns 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		6.5%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.0%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.8%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.5%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		6.9%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.3%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Stearns County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 17.6% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Minnesota: 46.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.9%) 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 Stearns 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 Stearns 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 Stearns 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	Stearns County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:32 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:34 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:32 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:27 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:27 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:26 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:26 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Stearns County were on the road by 7:26 AM, 9 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:35 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Stearns County now leave 12 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 Stearns County has moved 5 minutes earlier.

How does Stearns County's commute time compare?

Metric	Stearns County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.2 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	10.6%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	4.3%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	1.3%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Stearns County is 17.2 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

1.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 4.3% commute by walking, higher than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Stearns County, MN Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Stearns County, MN is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 160,684 residents against a local median of 34,249. Where Stearns County, MN breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 16% above the local median of 9.1% at 10.6%.

The counties themselves spread 5.9% on work from home, so Stearns County, MN sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Stearns County, MN has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Stearns County, MN	160,684	17.2 min #2/6	10.6% #2/6	7:26 AM #5/6
Meeker County, MN	23,466	18.9 min	8.0%	7:09 AM
Kandiyohi County, MN	44,079	13.4 min	9.1%	7:37 AM
Morrison County, MN	34,249	23.4 min	8.7%	7:12 AM
Todd County, MN	25,575	21.4 min	13.9%	7:08 AM
Benton County, MN	41,593	18.4 min	9.5%	7:19 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Stearns County, Minnesota.

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

Commuters here spend an estimated 143 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,447 at a typical national wage. That's 15% less than the typical Minnesota commuter spends.

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

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Stearns 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.

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).