Richmond County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Richmond County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Richmond County spend about 38 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 157 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 3.0 minutes.

Richmond County holds about 0.4% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Richmond County would save about 63 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,943 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)
Richmond County	18.8 min	37.6 min	157 hrs/yr	$4,859	963
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 18.8 minutes to get to work in Richmond County. That's 16% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 82% 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 4.4% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Richmond County

• Car: 94.3%
• Worked at Home: 4.4% unusually low
• Walked: 0.9%
• Other: 0.3%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1%
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

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

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

Working from home is unusually rare in Richmond County: 3.7 times less than the North Carolina average (4.4% vs 16.3%).

Biking is unusually rare in Richmond County: 45653.5 times less than the North Carolina average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Richmond County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Other	Motorcycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Bicycle
2009	97.4%	1.2%	0.6%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	97.2%	1.7%	0.7%	0.1%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2011	95.9%	2.3%	0.9%	0.2%	0.2%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2012	96.2%	2.2%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2013	95.5%	2.1%	1.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	94.6%	2.3%	2.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	94.6%	1.9%	2.7%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	95.3%	1.6%	2.3%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.8%	2.0%	2.3%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.8%	2.3%	2.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.2%	2.3%	2.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	95.7%	1.9%	1.5%	0.6%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	94.7%	2.8%	1.8%	0.5%	0.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	95.4%	2.4%	1.4%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	95.2%	2.7%	1.3%	0.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	94.3%	4.4%	0.9%	0.3%	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 bottomed out in 2019 at 94.2%. Overall it fell from 97.4% in 2009 to 94.3% in 2024, down 3.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Richmond County: its share of workers rose from 1.2% in 2009 to 4.4% in 2024, up 3.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking peaked at 2.7% in 2015 and has since fallen back to 0.9%.

Commute Start Times in Richmond County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Richmond County?

The bars show when commuters in Richmond 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 Richmond County6.9% North Carolina4.4%	6.9%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Richmond County1.1% North Carolina3.5%	1.1%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Richmond County6.1% North Carolina4.6%	6.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Richmond County8.6% North Carolina9.0%	8.6%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Richmond County12.6% North Carolina10.2%	12.6%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Richmond County16.4% North Carolina15.3%	16.4%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Richmond County13.3% North Carolina12.8%	13.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Richmond County8.7% North Carolina11.7%	8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Richmond County2.2% North Carolina5.4%	2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Richmond County5.0% North Carolina6.4%	5.0%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Richmond County2.1% North Carolina2.8%	2.1%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Richmond County1.5% North Carolina1.4%	1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Richmond County6.4% North Carolina6.3%	6.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Richmond County9.0% North Carolina6.4%	9.0%

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

The busiest time to head out in Richmond County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are more common than in North Carolina: 14.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 51.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (24.1%) 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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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 Richmond 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.

• Richmond County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Richmond County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:46 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:40 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:40 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:42 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:41 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:38 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:37 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:36 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:26 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:25 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:24 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:27 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Richmond County were on the road by 7:27 AM, 19 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:46 AM). That goes against the trend across North Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Richmond County now leave 11 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Richmond County's commute time compare?

Metric	Richmond County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	18.8 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	4.4%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.9%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Richmond County is 18.8 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.9% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau