Wadena County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Wadena County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wadena 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 133 hours, about 5.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% less time on the road than the Minnesota average of 20.3 minutes each way, a difference of 4.4 minutes.

Wadena County holds about 0.2% of Minnesota's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wadena County would save about 53 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,648 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)
Wadena County	15.9 min	31.9 min	133 hrs/yr	$4,120	401
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 15.9 minutes to get to work in Wadena County. That's 29% 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 8.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wadena County

• Car: 86.9%
• Worked at Home: 8.4%
• Bicycle: 1.9% unusually high
• Walked: 1.6%
• Public Transportation: 0.7%
• Other: 0.5%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Wadena County: 5.5 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Wadena County: 38972.1 times less than the Minnesota average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually common in Wadena County: 4.0 times more than the Minnesota average (1.9% vs 0.5%).

Commute Mode Trends in Wadena County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Bicycle	Walked	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	86.2%	8.5%	0.7%	3.6%	0.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	87.8%	7.2%	0.3%	3.7%	0.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%
2011	87.0%	8.1%	0.4%	3.3%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	89.4%	6.5%	0.1%	2.7%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	89.5%	6.1%	0.2%	2.9%	0.6%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	90.4%	4.8%	0.2%	3.0%	0.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	89.3%	4.7%	0.2%	4.4%	0.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	87.8%	4.8%	0.3%	5.5%	0.8%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	88.0%	5.7%	0.3%	4.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	87.6%	6.8%	0.3%	4.2%	0.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	86.7%	7.0%	0.4%	4.9%	0.1%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	85.8%	9.0%	0.5%	3.6%	0.2%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	87.3%	8.9%	0.0%	2.8%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	88.3%	8.4%	0.0%	2.1%	0.3%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	87.7%	7.3%	1.4%	2.5%	0.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	86.9%	8.4%	1.9%	1.6%	0.7%	0.5%	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 2014 at 90.4% and lowest in 2020 at 85.8%. Overall it rose from 86.2% in 2009 to 86.9% in 2024, up 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Biking gained the most ground in Wadena County: its share of workers rose from 0.7% in 2009 to 1.9% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.6% to 1.6% of workers (down 2.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Wadena County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wadena County?

The bars show when commuters in Wadena 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 Wadena County9.9% Minnesota5.0%	9.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Wadena County3.9% Minnesota3.8%	3.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Wadena County9.6% Minnesota5.2%	9.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Wadena County9.3% Minnesota8.4%	9.3%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Wadena County9.6% Minnesota10.2%	9.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Wadena County12.3% Minnesota14.8%	12.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Wadena County15.2% Minnesota13.8%	15.2%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Wadena County8.4% Minnesota10.4%	8.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Wadena County1.6% Minnesota4.7%	1.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Wadena County4.7% Minnesota5.8%	4.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Wadena County1.8% Minnesota2.7%	1.8%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Wadena County1.0% Minnesota1.3%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Wadena County7.4% Minnesota8.2%	7.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Wadena County5.3% Minnesota5.8%	5.3%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wadena County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.8% across Minnesota. Early starts are more common than in Minnesota: 23.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.0% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Minnesota: 45.4% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.2% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.3%) 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 Wadena 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 Wadena 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 Wadena 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.

• Wadena County
• Minnesota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Wadena County	Minnesota	United States
2009	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:37 AM	7:36 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:35 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:32 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	7:23 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:22 AM	7:34 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:19 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wadena County were on the road by 7:19 AM, 18 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:37 AM). Across Minnesota, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Wadena County now leave 19 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 Wadena County has moved 4 minutes earlier.

How does Wadena County's commute time compare?

Metric	Wadena County	Minnesota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	15.9 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	8.4%	17.6%	15.0%
Walked	1.6%	2.5%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.7%	1.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Wadena County is 15.9 minutes, shorter than the 20.3 minutes in Minnesota.

0.7% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.8% in Minnesota. 1.6% commute by walking, lower than the 2.5% in Minnesota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau