Commuting in Brunswick County, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:37 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Brunswick County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:37 PM
Commute Time Burden in Brunswick County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Brunswick County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 184 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 0.2 minutes.
Brunswick County holds about 1.4% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 1.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Brunswick County would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,279 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)
Brunswick County
22.1 min
44.1 min
184 hrs/yr
$5,697
2,344
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.
On average, it takes
22.1
minutes to get to work in
Brunswick County.
That's 2% 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 14.7% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Brunswick County
Car:
82.3%
Worked at Home:
14.7%
Other:
1.3%
Walked:
0.9%
Public Transportation:
0.6%
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Brunswick County, versus 0.2% in North Carolina.
Biking is unusually rare in Brunswick County: 4.4 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Brunswick County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Brunswick 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
Other
Walked
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
92.6%
3.4%
0.7%
1.8%
0.8%
0.1%
0.6%
0.2%
2010
93.4%
3.2%
0.7%
1.6%
0.5%
0.0%
0.4%
0.1%
2011
93.0%
3.8%
0.6%
1.2%
0.7%
0.0%
0.6%
0.1%
2012
93.5%
3.5%
0.7%
0.9%
0.6%
0.0%
0.7%
0.1%
2013
92.4%
4.5%
0.9%
1.0%
0.5%
0.0%
0.6%
0.1%
2014
92.5%
4.3%
1.1%
1.0%
0.4%
0.0%
0.6%
0.1%
2015
92.9%
4.8%
0.8%
0.7%
0.4%
0.0%
0.4%
0.0%
2016
91.8%
5.3%
1.0%
1.3%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2017
90.2%
6.7%
1.2%
1.3%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2018
90.4%
6.6%
1.3%
1.0%
0.5%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2019
89.7%
7.5%
1.3%
0.9%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
89.2%
7.9%
1.1%
0.8%
0.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2021
87.4%
9.4%
1.5%
0.5%
1.0%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2022
85.9%
10.7%
1.5%
0.8%
0.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2023
84.1%
12.7%
1.3%
0.9%
0.9%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2024
82.3%
14.7%
1.3%
0.9%
0.6%
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 2012 at 93.5%. Overall it fell from 92.6% in 2009 to 82.3% in 2024, down 10.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Brunswick County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 14.7% in 2024, up 11.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.8% to 0.9% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Brunswick County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Brunswick County?
The bars show when commuters in Brunswick 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.
Brunswick CountyNorth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Brunswick County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 13.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 50.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (22.6%) 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 Brunswick 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 Brunswick 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 Brunswick 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.
Median time commuters leave home, by ACS 5-year release year. Source: U.S. Census Bureau.Show typical departure times by year
Year
Brunswick County
North Carolina
United States
2009
7:32 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:28 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:29 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:30 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:30 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Brunswick County were on the road by 7:31 AM, 2 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:32 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Brunswick 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 Brunswick County has moved 8 minutes earlier.
How does Brunswick County's commute time compare?
Metric
Brunswick County
North Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
22.1 min
21.9 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
14.7%
16.3%
15.0%
Walked
0.9%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.6%
0.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Brunswick County is about the same as in North Carolina.
0.6% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.
Brunswick County, NC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Brunswick County, NC is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 152,554 residents against a local median of 65,530. Brunswick County, NC's work from home, at 14.7%, runs 34% above the 11.0% typical of the counties around it.
The counties themselves spread 14.0% on work from home, so Brunswick County, NC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Brunswick County, NC has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Brunswick County, North Carolina.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Brunswick County, North Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 184 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,697 at a typical national wage. That's 1% more than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Brunswick County, North Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Brunswick County, North Carolina. 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 do commute times compare across counties in North Carolina?
Among counties in North Carolina, the shortest average commutes are in Macon County (17.2 min), Watauga County (17.2 min), Dare County (17.4 min). The longest are in Gates County (35.9 min), Currituck County (33.9 min), Tyrrell County (33.6 min).