Benton County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Benton County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Benton County spend about 65 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 271 hours, about 11.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 51% more time on the road than the Mississippi average of 21.5 minutes each way, a difference of 11.0 minutes.

Benton County holds about 0.3% of Mississippi'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 108 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,355 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	32.5 min	64.9 min	271 hrs/yr	$8,387	363
Mississippi	21.5 min	43.0 min	179 hrs/yr	$5,558	914
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: Mississippi Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 32.5 minutes to get to work in Benton County. That's 45% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the 5 slowest counties in Mississippi

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 1.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Benton County

• Car: 95.4%
• Worked at Home: 1.9% unusually low
• Walked: 1.7%
• Other: 1.0%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Benton County, versus 0.1% in Mississippi.

Public transit is essentially absent in Benton County, versus 0.3% in Mississippi.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Benton County, versus 0.1% in Mississippi.

Working from home is unusually rare in Benton County: 3.1 times less than the Mississippi average (1.9% vs 5.9%).

Biking is essentially absent in Benton County, versus 0.1% in Mississippi.

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
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	88.4%	0.1%	0.4%	11.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	90.6%	0.6%	0.5%	8.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	90.5%	1.0%	2.1%	6.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	96.5%	1.7%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	96.3%	1.8%	1.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	97.1%	1.7%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	97.8%	1.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	95.4%	2.1%	0.5%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	95.1%	2.1%	0.5%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	95.1%	1.9%	0.5%	2.5%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	93.9%	1.5%	0.8%	2.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	94.5%	1.8%	0.2%	2.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	96.2%	1.5%	0.7%	0.9%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	95.6%	1.8%	1.5%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.2%	1.9%	1.6%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	95.4%	1.9%	1.7%	1.0%	0.0%	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 peaked in 2015 at 97.8%. Overall it rose from 88.4% in 2009 to 95.4% in 2024, up 7.0 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Benton County: its share of workers rose from 0.1% in 2009 to 1.9% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points.

Public transit peaked at 1.2% in 2020 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.

Commute Start Times in Benton County

• 🛌 Hitting SnoozeThe biggest shift to later mornings among Mississippi's 82 counties: the typical start is 37 minutes later than in 2009.

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 Mississippi for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Benton County8.9% Mississippi6.6%	8.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Benton County4.9% Mississippi4.5%	4.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Benton County9.5% Mississippi5.3%	9.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Benton County17.2% Mississippi11.1%	17.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Benton County7.1% Mississippi12.4%	7.1%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Benton County17.3% Mississippi17.1%	17.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Benton County16.6% Mississippi12.6%	16.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Benton County5.3% Mississippi8.2%	5.3%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Benton County2.4% Mississippi3.0%	2.4%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Benton County1.7% Mississippi4.0%	1.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Benton County0.2% Mississippi2.1%	0.2%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Benton County0.7% Mississippi0.8%	0.7%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Benton County2.5% Mississippi5.8%	2.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Benton County5.7% Mississippi6.4%	5.7%

Benton County Mississippi 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 17.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 17.1% across Mississippi. Early starts are more common than in Mississippi: 23.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 16.4% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Mississippi: 46.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.4% there. About 1 in 9 commuters (10.8%) 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 Mississippi 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
• Mississippi
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Benton County	Mississippi	United States
2009	6:27 AM	7:20 AM	7:37 AM
2010	6:25 AM	7:21 AM	7:38 AM
2011	6:54 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:04 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:07 AM	7:20 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:00 AM	7:20 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:01 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2016	6:55 AM	7:20 AM	7:38 AM
2017	6:48 AM	7:19 AM	7:38 AM
2018	6:39 AM	7:19 AM	7:37 AM
2019	6:30 AM	7:19 AM	7:37 AM
2020	6:56 AM	7:19 AM	7:37 AM
2021	6:54 AM	7:18 AM	7:37 AM
2022	6:47 AM	7:18 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:05 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:04 AM	7:18 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Benton County were on the road by 7:04 AM, 37 minutes later than in 2009 (6:27 AM). That goes against the trend across Mississippi, where the typical commuter now leaves 3 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Benton County now leave 34 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 34 minutes later.

How does Benton County's commute time compare?

Metric	Benton County	Mississippi	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	32.5 min	21.5 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	06:00 AM – 06:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	1.9%	5.9%	15.0%
Walked	1.7%	1.3%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Benton County is 32.5 minutes, longer than the 21.5 minutes in Mississippi.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in Mississippi. 1.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.3% in Mississippi.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau