Wilmington Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Wilmington, North Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 4:13 PM

Is the commute in Wilmington longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 4:13 PM

Commute Time Burden in Wilmington: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Wilmington spend about 33 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 139 hours, about 5.8 full days, spent commuting. That is 23% less time on the road than the North Carolina average of 21.9 minutes each way, a difference of 5.1 minutes.

Wilmington holds about 1.1% of North Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Wilmington would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,729 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)
Wilmington	16.7 min	33.5 min	139 hrs/yr	$4,323	3,518
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.

Wilmington Commute Map

On average, it takes 16.7 minutes to get to work in Wilmington. That's 25% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 19.0% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Wilmington

Biking is unusually common in Wilmington: 4.7 times more than the North Carolina average (0.8% vs 0.2%).

Commute Mode Trends in Wilmington, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Wilmington 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	90.6%	3.2%	2.7%	0.7%	1.0%	1.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	90.5%	3.9%	2.5%	0.6%	1.1%	0.9%	0.2%	0.3%
2011	90.2%	4.0%	2.2%	0.8%	1.1%	1.1%	0.2%	0.3%
2012	88.9%	4.3%	2.7%	0.8%	1.5%	1.0%	0.3%	0.5%
2013	87.2%	5.2%	3.4%	0.9%	1.3%	1.3%	0.2%	0.4%
2014	86.6%	6.1%	3.1%	1.1%	1.3%	1.3%	0.2%	0.3%
2015	86.1%	6.5%	2.7%	1.2%	1.5%	1.4%	0.2%	0.5%
2016	86.5%	6.5%	2.8%	1.0%	1.3%	1.3%	0.2%	0.4%
2017	86.4%	7.0%	2.5%	0.9%	1.2%	1.6%	0.2%	0.2%
2018	87.5%	6.9%	2.4%	0.8%	0.9%	1.1%	0.2%	0.2%
2019	87.1%	7.1%	2.9%	0.7%	0.9%	1.0%	0.2%	0.2%
2020	85.2%	10.2%	2.6%	0.3%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2021	82.9%	12.6%	2.4%	0.5%	0.6%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%
2022	81.2%	14.6%	2.2%	0.7%	0.6%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%
2023	78.4%	17.5%	2.0%	0.7%	0.7%	0.4%	0.3%	0.0%
2024	76.3%	19.0%	2.1%	1.0%	0.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.2%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.6% in 2009 to 76.3% in 2024, down 14.3 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Wilmington: its share of workers rose from 3.2% in 2009 to 19.0% in 2024, up 15.8 percentage points. Most of that increase, 11.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.3% to 0.3% of workers (down 1.0 percentage points).

Biking overtook public transit to become the 5th most common choice in the 2022 release and has stayed ahead since.

Commute Start Times in Wilmington

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Wilmington?

The bars show when commuters in Wilmington 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		2.2%
5:00-5:29 AM		2.6%
5:30-5:59 AM		2.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		6.1%
6:30-6:59 AM		8.1%
7:00-7:29 AM		13.3%
7:30-7:59 AM		14.7%
8:00-8:29 AM		13.6%
8:30-8:59 AM		7.3%
9:00-9:59 AM		9.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		4.7%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.4%
12:00-3:59 PM		7.5%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.6%

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

The busiest time to head out in Wilmington is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 14.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 12.8% across North Carolina. Early starts are less common than in North Carolina: 6.8% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.5% there. The morning rush looks much like North Carolina's: 49.6% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 50.0% there. About 1 in 3 commuters (30.1%) 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 Wilmington, 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 Wilmington 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 Wilmington 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	Wilmington	North Carolina	United States
2009	8:03 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2010	8:05 AM	7:36 AM	7:38 AM
2011	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2012	8:09 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2013	8:06 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2014	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:39 AM
2015	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	8:08 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	8:07 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2018	8:08 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	8:05 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	8:04 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	8:01 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:59 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	8:02 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Wilmington were on the road by 8:02 AM, almost exactly the same as in 2009. Across North Carolina, meanwhile, the typical commuter now leaves 1 minute later than in 2009. Commuters in Wilmington now leave 24 minutes later than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM). Since the 2019 release, which covers the years just before the pandemic, the typical start in Wilmington has moved 3 minutes earlier.

How does Wilmington's commute time compare?

Metric	Wilmington	North Carolina	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.7 min	21.9 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 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	19.0%	16.3%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	1.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.3%	0.7%	3.2%

The average commute time in Wilmington is 16.7 minutes, shorter than the 21.9 minutes in North Carolina.

0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.7% in North Carolina. 2.1% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in North Carolina.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Is living in Wilmington, North Carolina good for avoiding long commute costs?

Commuters here spend an estimated 139 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,323 at a typical national wage. That's 23% less than the typical North Carolina commuter spends.

When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Wilmington, North Carolina?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Wilmington, North Carolina. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 08:00 AM – 08:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.