Northampton County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Northampton County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Northampton County spend about 47 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 196 hours, about 8.2 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 1.7 minutes.

Northampton County holds about 0.2% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Northampton County would save about 78 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,431 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)
Northampton County	23.5 min	47.1 min	196 hrs/yr	$6,079	456
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 23.5 minutes to get to work in Northampton County. That's 5% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 71% of counties in North Carolina

The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 5.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Northampton County

• Car: 91.5%
• Worked at Home: 5.9%
• Other: 2.2%
• Walked: 0.3% unusually low
• 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 Northampton County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

Walking is unusually rare in Northampton County: 5.2 times less than the North Carolina average (0.3% vs 1.6%).

Public transit is essentially absent in Northampton County, versus 0.7% in North Carolina.

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

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

Few people walk or bike to work in Northampton County: just 0.3%, 5.8 times below the North Carolina average of 1.8%.

Commute Mode Trends in Northampton County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Northampton 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
• Other
• Walked
• Public Transportation
• Taxi
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	97.2%	0.5%	0.3%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	97.6%	0.6%	0.6%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	95.8%	0.8%	1.0%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	94.5%	1.3%	1.0%	3.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	94.3%	1.5%	1.2%	2.7%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2014	94.0%	1.6%	1.1%	2.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	92.7%	2.3%	1.1%	3.1%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2016	94.1%	2.7%	0.5%	2.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2017	95.2%	2.7%	0.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.4%
2018	94.3%	3.2%	0.7%	1.2%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	94.4%	3.4%	0.5%	1.4%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	94.8%	3.0%	0.7%	1.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	93.0%	3.8%	1.9%	0.9%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2022	91.1%	5.7%	1.7%	0.9%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	91.2%	6.2%	2.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%
2024	91.5%	5.9%	2.2%	0.3%	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 was highest in 2010 at 97.6% and lowest in 2022 at 91.1%. Overall it fell from 97.2% in 2009 to 91.5% in 2024, down 5.7 percentage points.

Working from home gained the most ground in Northampton County: its share of workers rose from 0.5% in 2009 to 5.9% in 2024, up 5.4 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.7% to 0.3% of workers (down 1.4 percentage points).

Working from home overtook walking to become the 2nd most common choice in the 2016 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Northampton County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Northampton County?

The bars show when commuters in Northampton 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 Northampton County6.4% North Carolina4.4%	6.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Northampton County7.1% North Carolina3.5%	7.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Northampton County5.8% North Carolina4.6%	5.8%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Northampton County9.0% North Carolina9.0%	9.0%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Northampton County11.2% North Carolina10.2%	11.2%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Northampton County15.2% North Carolina15.3%	15.2%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Northampton County7.4% North Carolina12.8%	7.4%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Northampton County12.8% North Carolina11.7%	12.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Northampton County4.9% North Carolina5.4%	4.9%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Northampton County4.4% North Carolina6.4%	4.4%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Northampton County1.9% North Carolina2.8%	1.9%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Northampton County1.0% North Carolina1.4%	1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Northampton County7.3% North Carolina6.3%	7.3%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Northampton County5.6% North Carolina6.4%	5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Northampton County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.2% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 19.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Carolina: 46.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (20.1%) 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 Northampton 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 Northampton 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 Northampton 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.

• Northampton County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Northampton County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:39 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:34 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:31 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:29 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:31 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:29 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:24 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:19 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:23 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Northampton County were on the road by 7:21 AM, 18 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:39 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Northampton County now leave 17 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Northampton County's commute time compare?

Metric	Northampton County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	23.5 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	08:00 AM – 08:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	5.9%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.3%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Northampton County is 23.5 minutes, longer than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.3% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau