St. Charles County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in St. Charles County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in St. Charles County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 189 hours, about 7.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the Missouri average of 21.0 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

St. Charles County holds about 6.7% of Missouri's population but accounts for roughly 7.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in St. Charles County would save about 76 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,347 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)
St. Charles County	22.7 min	45.4 min	189 hrs/yr	$5,867	2,159
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 22.7 minutes to get to work in St. Charles County. That's 1% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 72% of counties in Missouri

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 18.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in St. Charles County

• Car: 79.8%
• Worked at Home: 18.0%
• Other: 1.1%
• Walked: 0.8%
• Motorcycle: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Public transit is unusually rare in St. Charles County: 11.6 times less than the Missouri average (0.1% vs 0.8%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in St. Charles County: 4.4 times less than the Missouri average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Biking is unusually rare in St. Charles County: 3.8 times less than the Missouri average (0.1% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in St. Charles County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in St. Charles 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
• Other
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Taxi
2009	94.0%	4.1%	0.7%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2010	93.9%	4.2%	0.7%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2011	93.8%	4.2%	0.6%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2012	93.7%	4.3%	0.6%	1.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2013	93.3%	4.6%	0.6%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	93.2%	4.7%	0.6%	1.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2015	93.1%	4.8%	0.7%	1.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2016	92.5%	5.6%	0.6%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2017	92.5%	5.6%	0.5%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2018	92.5%	5.7%	0.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2019	92.6%	5.6%	0.6%	0.9%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	89.6%	8.5%	0.8%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	86.4%	11.6%	0.8%	0.8%	0.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	84.0%	14.0%	1.0%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	82.0%	15.9%	1.1%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	79.8%	18.0%	1.1%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 94.0% in 2009 to 79.8% in 2024, down 14.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in St. Charles County: its share of workers rose from 4.1% in 2009 to 18.0% in 2024, up 13.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 12.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in St. Charles County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in St. Charles County?

The bars show when commuters in St. Charles 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 St. Charles County4.5% Missouri5.2%	4.5%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM St. Charles County3.6% Missouri3.9%	3.6%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM St. Charles County5.2% Missouri5.3%	5.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM St. Charles County9.9% Missouri9.0%	9.9%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM St. Charles County11.4% Missouri10.4%	11.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM St. Charles County14.5% Missouri15.0%	14.5%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM St. Charles County12.5% Missouri13.6%	12.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM St. Charles County11.2% Missouri10.1%	11.2%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM St. Charles County5.7% Missouri4.5%	5.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM St. Charles County5.0% Missouri5.2%	5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM St. Charles County2.9% Missouri2.6%	2.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM St. Charles County1.2% Missouri1.2%	1.2%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM St. Charles County6.3% Missouri7.0%	6.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM St. Charles County6.1% Missouri6.9%	6.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in St. Charles County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.5% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.0% across Missouri. Early starts are less common than in Missouri: 13.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.5% there. The morning rush looks much like Missouri's: 49.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.5%) 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 St. Charles 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 St. Charles 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 St. Charles 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.

• St. Charles County
• Missouri
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	St. Charles County	Missouri	United States
2009	7:30 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	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:29 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:28 AM	7:33 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:29 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	7:31 AM	7:31 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:30 AM	7:32 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:30 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	7:32 AM	7:32 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in St. Charles County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:30 AM). Across Missouri, the typical start barely moved over the same years. Commuters in St. Charles County now leave 6 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 St. Charles County has moved 2 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for St. Charles County in the whole series.

How does St. Charles County's commute time compare?

Metric	St. Charles County	Missouri	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.7 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	18.0%	13.0%	15.0%
Walked	0.8%	1.8%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.8%	3.2%

The average commute time in St. Charles County is 22.7 minutes, longer than the 21.0 minutes in Missouri.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.8% in Missouri. 0.8% commute by walking, lower than the 1.8% in Missouri.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau