Clay County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Clay County, Missouri: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:24 PM

What does a typical morning commute look like in Clay County?

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

Commute Time Burden in Clay County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Clay County spend about 42 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 175 hours, about 7.3 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way.

Clay County holds about 4.2% of Missouri's population and accounts for roughly 4.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Clay County would save about 70 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,165 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)
Clay County	21.0 min	41.9 min	175 hrs/yr	$5,413	1,894
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

Fastest commutes among counties in Missouri

Saline County (11.9 min)
Adair County (12.0 min)
Nodaway County (12.1 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Missouri

Bollinger County (33.1 min)
Ray County (32.2 min)
Maries County (31.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Clay County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 21.0 minutes to get to work in Clay County. That's 7% 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 15.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Clay County

Public transit is unusually rare in Clay County: 5.3 times less than the Missouri average (0.2% vs 0.8%).

Commute Mode Trends in Clay County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Clay 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	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	94.3%	2.9%	1.3%	0.5%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2010	94.4%	2.8%	1.2%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2011	94.3%	2.8%	1.2%	0.4%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2012	94.2%	3.1%	1.2%	0.5%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2013	93.8%	3.2%	1.2%	0.5%	1.0%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2014	93.7%	3.7%	1.0%	0.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2015	93.4%	4.2%	1.1%	0.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	92.6%	4.6%	1.3%	0.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	92.2%	5.1%	1.2%	0.6%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%
2018	92.0%	5.4%	1.2%	0.6%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%
2019	92.0%	5.4%	1.3%	0.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2020	90.9%	6.5%	1.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%
2021	88.3%	9.2%	1.0%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2022	86.1%	11.6%	0.9%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2023	83.9%	14.0%	0.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%
2024	81.7%	15.9%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.1%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 94.4%. Overall it fell from 94.3% in 2009 to 81.7% in 2024, down 12.6 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Clay County: its share of workers rose from 2.9% in 2009 to 15.9% in 2024, up 13.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.5 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Clay County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Clay County?

The bars show when commuters in Clay 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		5.9%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.2%
5:30-5:59 AM		5.3%
6:00-6:29 AM		8.9%
6:30-6:59 AM		10.6%
7:00-7:29 AM		14.8%
7:30-7:59 AM		12.3%
8:00-8:29 AM		10.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		4.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		5.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		3.0%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		6.6%
4:00-11:59 PM		7.4%

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

The busiest time to head out in Clay County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.0% across Missouri. Early starts are about as common as in Missouri: 15.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Missouri's: 47.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (23.6%) 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 Clay 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 Clay 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 Clay 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.

Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Clay County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:30 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:31 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:32 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:29 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:31 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:30 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Clay County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 1 minute later than in 2009 (7:29 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in Clay County now leave 7 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 Clay County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Clay County's commute time compare?

Metric	Clay County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	21.0 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	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	15.9%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.2%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in Clay County is about the same as in Missouri.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Clay County, MO Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Clay County, MO is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 258,122 residents against a local median of 110,371. Where Clay County, MO breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 49% above the local median of 10.6% at 15.9%.

The counties themselves spread 9.8% on work from home, so Clay County, MO sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Clay County, MO has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Clay County, MO	258,122	21.0 min #1/6	15.9% #2/6	7:30 AM #3/6
Clinton County, MO	21,414	27.2 min	10.0%	7:10 AM
Jackson County, MO	719,648	22.0 min	15.8%	7:42 AM
Platte County, MO	110,371	22.1 min	19.2%	7:37 AM
Wyandotte County, KS	167,620	21.2 min	9.4%	7:38 AM
Ray County, MO	23,145	32.2 min	10.6%	7:18 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Clay County, Missouri.

Is living in Clay County, Missouri good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 175 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,413 at a typical national wage.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Clay County, Missouri?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Clay County, Missouri. 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.

How common is public transit use in Clay County, Missouri?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.2% of commuters use it versus 0.8% in Missouri, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

Which counties in Missouri have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Missouri, the shortest average commutes are in Saline County (11.9 min), Adair County (12.0 min), Nodaway County (12.1 min). The longest are in Bollinger County (33.1 min), Ray County (32.2 min), Maries County (31.9 min).