Burke County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Burke County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Burke County spend about 37 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 156 hours, about 6.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

Burke County holds about 0.8% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.7% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Burke County would save about 62 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,936 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)
Burke County	18.7 min	37.5 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,840	1,539
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 18.7 minutes to get to work in Burke County. That's 16% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 84% of counties in North Carolina

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 5.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Burke County

• Car: 93.4%
• Worked at Home: 5.4% unusually low
• Other: 0.5%
• Walked: 0.5% unusually low
• Bicycle: 0.2%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Walking is unusually rare in Burke County: 3.4 times less than the North Carolina average (0.5% vs 1.6%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Burke County: 37.0 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.7%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Burke County: 14.1 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Working from home is unusually rare in Burke County: 3.0 times less than the North Carolina average (5.4% vs 16.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in Burke County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Burke 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
• Bicycle
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	94.0%	3.6%	1.1%	0.6%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.1%
2010	93.9%	3.7%	1.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	93.8%	3.6%	1.4%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	94.0%	3.7%	1.3%	0.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	93.7%	3.8%	1.7%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	94.6%	2.9%	1.7%	0.4%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	95.4%	2.4%	1.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	95.2%	2.5%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	95.0%	2.9%	1.1%	0.8%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	95.2%	2.7%	0.8%	0.9%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.3%	3.5%	0.7%	1.1%	0.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	94.0%	4.1%	0.4%	1.2%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	93.8%	4.3%	0.4%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	93.4%	4.9%	0.5%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	93.3%	5.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2024	93.4%	5.4%	0.5%	0.5%	0.2%	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 was highest in 2015 at 95.4% and lowest in 2023 at 93.3%. Overall it fell from 94.0% in 2009 to 93.4% in 2024, down 0.6 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Burke County: its share of workers rose from 3.6% in 2009 to 5.4% in 2024, up 1.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.5% of workers (down 0.6 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Burke County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Burke County?

The bars show when commuters in Burke 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 Burke County4.6% North Carolina4.4%	4.6%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Burke County5.3% North Carolina3.5%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Burke County6.1% North Carolina4.6%	6.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Burke County8.6% North Carolina9.0%	8.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Burke County10.4% North Carolina10.2%	10.4%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Burke County14.4% North Carolina15.3%	14.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Burke County12.5% North Carolina12.8%	12.5%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Burke County9.9% North Carolina11.7%	9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Burke County3.0% North Carolina5.4%	3.0%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Burke County4.5% North Carolina6.4%	4.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Burke County2.0% North Carolina2.8%	2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Burke County1.5% North Carolina1.4%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Burke County7.5% North Carolina6.3%	7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Burke County9.7% North Carolina6.4%	9.7%

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

The busiest time to head out in Burke County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 14.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 16.0% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Carolina: 47.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.2%) 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 Burke 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 Burke 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 Burke 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.

• Burke County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Burke County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:32 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:33 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:34 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:36 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:35 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Burke County were on the road by 7:31 AM, 1 minute 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 Burke 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 Burke County has moved 8 minutes later.

How does Burke County's commute time compare?

Metric	Burke County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.7 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	5.4%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.5%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Burke County is 18.7 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.5% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau