Commuting in Chatham County, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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How many minutes is the average drive to work in Chatham County?
Map AI9/24/26, 7:05 PM
Commute Time Burden in Chatham County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Chatham County spend about 53 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 223 hours, about 9.3 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 4.9 minutes.
Chatham County holds about 0.7% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.9% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Chatham County would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,762 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)
Chatham County
26.7 min
53.4 min
223 hrs/yr
$6,904
1,746
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
26.7
minutes to get to work in
Chatham County.
That's 19% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 83% 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 22.5% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Chatham County
Car:
74.2%
Worked at Home:
22.5%
Walked:
1.5%
Other:
1.3%
Public Transportation:
0.3%
Bicycle:
< 0.1%
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Chatham County: 4.7 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in Chatham County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Chatham 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
Walked
Other
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Taxi
Motorcycle
2009
90.0%
5.6%
2.3%
0.8%
1.0%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
2010
89.8%
5.7%
2.6%
0.6%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2011
88.5%
6.5%
2.4%
1.0%
0.9%
0.1%
0.4%
0.1%
2012
88.0%
6.9%
2.2%
1.2%
1.0%
0.2%
0.4%
0.1%
2013
87.6%
7.4%
2.0%
1.3%
0.8%
0.1%
0.6%
0.1%
2014
87.1%
7.6%
1.6%
1.5%
0.7%
0.2%
1.2%
0.2%
2015
87.4%
7.8%
1.1%
1.3%
1.1%
0.1%
1.0%
0.1%
2016
88.9%
7.8%
1.3%
0.8%
0.8%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
88.8%
8.1%
1.3%
0.8%
0.7%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2018
88.5%
7.9%
2.0%
0.6%
0.7%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
2019
88.5%
8.1%
1.9%
0.5%
0.7%
0.1%
0.0%
0.2%
2020
83.1%
12.3%
2.5%
1.3%
0.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2021
79.8%
15.9%
2.3%
1.3%
0.6%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2022
78.4%
17.7%
2.2%
1.2%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2023
76.6%
20.1%
1.6%
1.2%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
74.2%
22.5%
1.5%
1.3%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.0% in 2009 to 74.2% in 2024, down 15.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Chatham County: its share of workers rose from 5.6% in 2009 to 22.5% in 2024, up 16.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 14.4 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.3% to 1.5% of workers (down 0.8 percentage points).
Taking a taxi peaked at 1.2% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 0.0%.
Commute Start Times in Chatham County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Chatham County?
The bars show when commuters in Chatham 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.
Chatham CountyNorth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Chatham County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 9.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Carolina: 54.7% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.1%) 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 Chatham 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 Chatham 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 Chatham 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
Chatham County
North Carolina
United States
2009
7:30 AM
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:29 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:30 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:40 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:35 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:36 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Chatham County were on the road by 7:36 AM, 5 minutes later than in 2009 (7:30 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Carolina, where the typical start moved 1 minute later. Commuters in Chatham County now leave 2 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).
How does Chatham County's commute time compare?
Metric
Chatham County
North Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
26.7 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
22.5%
16.3%
15.0%
Walked
1.5%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.3%
0.7%
3.2%
The average commute time in Chatham County is 26.7 minutes, longer than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.
0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 1.5% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.
Chatham County, NC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Chatham County, NC is the 5th largest of the 6 counties compared here, 80,150 residents against a local median of 149,658. Chatham County, NC's work from home, at 22.5%, runs 84% above the 12.2% typical of the counties around it.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 26.7 min against a local median of 21.4 min, 25% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 25% above the local median it puts Chatham County, NC at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 20.2% on work from home, so Chatham County, NC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Chatham County, NC has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Chatham County, North Carolina.
What is the financial impact of commuting in Chatham County, North Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 223 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $6,904 at a typical national wage. That's 22% more than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.
What are the busiest morning travel hours in Chatham County, North Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Chatham 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 much time do residents in Chatham County, North Carolina save by working from home?
About 22.5% of workers here already work from home. Working from home just 2 days a week in Chatham County would save about 89 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,762 at the same national wage assumption used above.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among 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).