Sampson County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Sampson County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Sampson County spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 187 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 3% more time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 0.6 minutes.

Sampson County holds about 0.6% of North Carolina's population and accounts for roughly 0.6% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Sampson County would save about 75 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,325 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)
Sampson County	22.5 min	45.0 min	187 hrs/yr	$5,812	847
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 22.5 minutes to get to work in Sampson County. That's about the same as the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

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 4.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Sampson County

• Car: 92.6%
• Worked at Home: 4.9% unusually low
• Other: 1.0%
• Public Transportation: 0.9%
• Walked: 0.6%
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Bicycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Sampson County, versus 0.1% in North Carolina.

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

Working from home is unusually rare in Sampson County: 3.3 times less than the North Carolina average (4.9% vs 16.3%).

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

Commute Mode Trends in Sampson County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Public Transportation	Walked	Taxi	Motorcycle	Bicycle
2009	95.4%	1.7%	0.8%	0.2%	1.6%	0.0%	0.0%	0.2%
2010	94.4%	2.5%	0.8%	0.2%	1.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2011	93.2%	2.9%	0.7%	1.0%	1.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2012	93.6%	2.9%	0.7%	0.8%	1.7%	0.0%	0.1%	0.2%
2013	93.6%	3.3%	0.7%	0.6%	1.6%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2014	93.7%	3.2%	0.6%	0.6%	1.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2015	94.4%	2.9%	0.6%	0.5%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	94.7%	2.8%	0.5%	0.3%	1.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	94.3%	3.1%	0.6%	0.2%	1.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	94.6%	3.0%	0.6%	0.3%	1.4%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	94.4%	3.4%	0.7%	0.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2020	94.6%	3.1%	0.6%	0.3%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2021	93.8%	3.9%	0.7%	0.7%	0.9%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2022	94.0%	3.8%	0.8%	0.6%	0.8%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	93.4%	4.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.7%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	92.6%	4.9%	1.0%	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. Overall its share fell from 95.4% in 2009 to 92.6% in 2024, down 2.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Sampson County: its share of workers rose from 1.7% in 2009 to 4.9% in 2024, up 3.2 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.6% to 0.6% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Sampson County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Sampson County?

The bars show when commuters in Sampson 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 Sampson County4.4% North Carolina4.4%	4.4%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Sampson County2.9% North Carolina3.5%	2.9%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Sampson County5.1% North Carolina4.6%	5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Sampson County13.5% North Carolina9.0%	13.5%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Sampson County10.8% North Carolina10.2%	10.8%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Sampson County18.0% North Carolina15.3%	18.0%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Sampson County12.0% North Carolina12.8%	12.0%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Sampson County14.8% North Carolina11.7%	14.8%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Sampson County2.1% North Carolina5.4%	2.1%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Sampson County2.6% North Carolina6.4%	2.6%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Sampson County2.4% North Carolina2.8%	2.4%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Sampson County1.4% North Carolina1.4%	1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Sampson County4.4% North Carolina6.3%	4.4%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Sampson County5.6% North Carolina6.4%	5.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Sampson County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 18.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across North Carolina. Early starts are about as common as in North Carolina: 12.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Carolina: 55.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (16.4%) 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 Sampson 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 Sampson 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 Sampson 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.

• Sampson County
• North Carolina
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Sampson County	North Carolina	United States
2009	7:19 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:18 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:18 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:21 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:18 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:17 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:16 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:15 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:12 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:16 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:20 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:22 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Sampson County were on the road by 7:22 AM, 3 minutes later than in 2009 (7:19 AM). North Carolina followed the same path, with the typical start moving 1 minute later. Commuters in Sampson County now leave 16 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 Sampson County has moved 10 minutes later. The 2024 release is the latest typical start for Sampson County in the whole series.

How does Sampson County's commute time compare?

Metric	Sampson County	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	22.5 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	4.9%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	0.6%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.9%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Sampson County is about the same as in North Carolina.

0.9% commute by public transit, higher than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 0.6% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau