Beaufort County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Beaufort County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Beaufort County spend about 40 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 167 hours, about 7.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 1.8 minutes.

Beaufort County holds about 0.4% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Beaufort County would save about 67 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,071 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)
Beaufort County	20.0 min	40.1 min	167 hrs/yr	$5,177	574
North Carolina	21.9 min	43.7 min	182 hrs/yr	$5,645	1,609
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: North Carolina Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 20.0 minutes to get to work in Beaufort County. That's 11% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 74% of counties in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Beaufort County

• Car: 88.6%
• Worked at Home: 8.9%
• Other: 1.2%
• Walked: 1.2%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Beaufort County: 5.6 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Beaufort County: 7.9 times less than the North Carolina average (0.1% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Beaufort County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

Biking is essentially absent in Beaufort County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.

Commute Mode Trends in Beaufort County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Beaufort 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	93.7%	3.4%	1.3%	0.6%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2010	93.5%	3.3%	1.6%	0.6%	0.3%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	93.4%	2.5%	2.2%	0.8%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2012	94.1%	2.2%	1.8%	0.9%	0.3%	0.3%	0.1%	0.3%
2013	94.2%	2.3%	1.8%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.4%
2014	94.0%	3.0%	1.8%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.4%
2015	94.1%	3.2%	1.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	93.1%	4.6%	1.5%	0.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2017	92.8%	4.3%	1.8%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2018	92.5%	4.9%	1.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	92.6%	4.5%	1.7%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	92.4%	5.5%	0.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	91.8%	5.6%	1.0%	1.2%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	90.9%	7.1%	0.8%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	88.9%	8.7%	1.0%	1.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2024	88.6%	8.9%	1.2%	1.2%	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 peaked in 2013 at 94.2%. Overall it fell from 93.7% in 2009 to 88.6% in 2024, down 5.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Beaufort County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 8.9% in 2024, up 5.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Commute Start Times in Beaufort County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Beaufort County?

The bars show when commuters in Beaufort 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 North Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Beaufort County3.8% North Carolina4.4%	3.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Beaufort County3.2% North Carolina3.5%	3.2%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Beaufort County6.2% North Carolina4.6%	6.2%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Beaufort County8.2% North Carolina9.0%	8.2%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Beaufort County8.4% North Carolina10.2%	8.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Beaufort County15.0% North Carolina15.3%	15.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Beaufort County15.8% North Carolina12.8%	15.8%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Beaufort County17.1% North Carolina11.7%	17.1%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Beaufort County8.1% North Carolina5.4%	8.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Beaufort County6.7% North Carolina6.4%	6.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Beaufort County0.6% North Carolina2.8%	0.6%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Beaufort County0.9% North Carolina1.4%	0.9%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Beaufort County3.2% North Carolina6.3%	3.2%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Beaufort County2.9% North Carolina6.4%	2.9%

Beaufort County North Carolina Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Beaufort County is 8:00-8:29 AM, when 17.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 11.7% across North Carolina. Early starts are about as common as in North Carolina: 13.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Carolina: 56.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.3%) 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort 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 Beaufort County next to North Carolina 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.

• Beaufort County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Beaufort County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:33 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:31 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:35 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:40 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:42 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:43 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:44 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:48 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:46 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:40 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Beaufort County were on the road by 7:40 AM, 8 minutes later than in 2009 (7:33 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Beaufort County now leave 2 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Beaufort County has moved 8 minutes earlier.

How does Beaufort County's commute time compare?

Metric	Beaufort County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	20.0 min	21.9 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	08:00 AM – 08:29 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	8.9%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	1.2%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Beaufort County is 20.0 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau