Benton County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Benton County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Benton County spend about 48 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 199 hours, about 8.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% more time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 2.9 minutes.

Benton County holds about 0.3% of Missouri's population but accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Benton County would save about 80 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,468 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)
Benton County	23.9 min	47.8 min	199 hrs/yr	$6,169	357
Missouri	21.0 min	41.9 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,415	923
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: Missouri Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 23.9 minutes to get to work in Benton County. That's 7% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 80% of counties in Missouri

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Benton County

• Car: 89.1%
• Worked at Home: 7.6%
• Walked: 2.0%
• Other: 1.1%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in Benton County: 28.5 times less than the Missouri average (0.0% vs 0.8%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Benton County, versus 0.2% in Missouri.

Biking is unusually rare in Benton County: 4.3 times less than the Missouri average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Benton County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	88.8%	6.4%	4.1%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	89.6%	6.3%	3.4%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	89.8%	6.5%	2.6%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	88.1%	7.5%	3.4%	1.0%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	88.8%	6.2%	3.1%	1.1%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	89.4%	6.1%	2.6%	1.3%	0.3%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	88.9%	6.6%	2.2%	1.3%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	90.3%	6.4%	1.5%	0.8%	0.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	89.8%	6.7%	1.5%	1.0%	0.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	89.6%	6.1%	2.3%	1.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	90.7%	4.7%	2.6%	1.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%
2020	91.0%	3.6%	2.7%	2.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2021	91.4%	3.7%	3.1%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2022	91.2%	4.2%	2.8%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2023	90.7%	5.0%	2.5%	1.6%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	89.1%	7.6%	2.0%	1.1%	0.1%	0.0%	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 2021 at 91.4% and lowest in 2012 at 88.1%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 88.8% in 2009 and 89.1% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Benton County: its share of workers rose from 6.4% in 2009 to 7.6% in 2024, up 1.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 4.1% to 2.0% of workers (down 2.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Benton County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Benton County?

The bars show when commuters in Benton 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 Missouri for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Benton County5.8% Missouri5.2%	5.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Benton County3.3% Missouri3.9%	3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Benton County7.2% Missouri5.3%	7.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Benton County8.8% Missouri9.0%	8.8%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Benton County13.9% Missouri10.4%	13.9%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Benton County19.6% Missouri15.0%	19.6%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Benton County10.5% Missouri13.6%	10.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Benton County7.5% Missouri10.1%	7.5%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Benton County2.1% Missouri4.5%	2.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Benton County4.8% Missouri5.2%	4.8%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Benton County2.2% Missouri2.6%	2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Benton County1.7% Missouri1.2%	1.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Benton County7.5% Missouri7.0%	7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Benton County5.0% Missouri6.9%	5.0%

Benton County Missouri Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Benton County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 19.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.0% across Missouri. Early starts are more common than in Missouri: 16.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Missouri: 51.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.2%) 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 Benton 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 Benton 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 Benton County next to Missouri 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.

• Benton County
• Missouri
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Benton County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:20 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:25 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:26 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:17 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:22 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:15 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:15 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:20 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:19 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:18 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:21 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:17 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:14 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:17 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Benton County were on the road by 7:17 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:20 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Benton County now leave 21 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 Benton County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Benton County's commute time compare?

Metric	Benton County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.9 min	21.0 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	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	7.6%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	2.0%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Benton County is 23.9 minutes, longer than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 2.0% commute by walking, higher than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau