McKenzie County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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

You 9/24/26, 5:16 PM

Is the commute in McKenzie County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 5:16 PM

Commute Time Burden in McKenzie County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in McKenzie County spend about 34 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 140 hours, about 5.9 full days, spent commuting. That is 22% more time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 3.1 minutes.

McKenzie County holds about 1.8% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 2.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in McKenzie County would save about 56 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,742 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)
McKenzie County	16.9 min	33.7 min	140 hrs/yr	$4,355	411
North Dakota	13.8 min	27.6 min	115 hrs/yr	$3,567	360
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 Dakota Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in North Dakota

McIntosh County (6.9 min)
Foster County (7.7 min)
Pierce County (7.7 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in North Dakota

McHenry County (28.9 min)
Renville County (23.5 min)
Oliver County (22.8 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

McKenzie County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.9 minutes to get to work in McKenzie County. That's 25% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Slower than 83% of counties in North Dakota

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 8.8% work from home.

How People Get to Work in McKenzie County

Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in McKenzie County, versus 0.2% in North Dakota.

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in McKenzie County, versus 0.1% in North Dakota.

Biking is unusually common in McKenzie County: 4.0 times more than the North Dakota average (1.1% vs 0.3%).

Commute Mode Trends in McKenzie County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in McKenzie 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	Bicycle	Public Transportation	Other	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	81.4%	11.4%	4.1%	0.0%	0.0%	3.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2010	83.9%	10.6%	2.3%	0.0%	0.0%	3.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2011	86.7%	7.7%	3.4%	0.1%	0.1%	2.0%	0.0%	0.0%
2012	86.3%	8.1%	3.1%	0.2%	0.1%	2.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2013	86.7%	7.0%	3.8%	0.1%	0.3%	2.1%	0.0%	0.0%
2014	85.6%	7.2%	5.2%	0.1%	0.5%	1.5%	0.0%	0.0%
2015	87.4%	5.5%	4.9%	0.1%	0.9%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2016	85.0%	7.9%	5.0%	0.1%	0.8%	1.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	87.2%	8.1%	3.3%	0.2%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2018	87.1%	8.9%	2.4%	0.3%	0.7%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2019	89.3%	7.3%	1.6%	0.3%	0.3%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2020	86.6%	8.1%	1.8%	2.2%	0.1%	1.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2021	90.7%	3.2%	2.6%	2.6%	0.2%	0.5%	0.0%	0.1%
2022	88.9%	5.3%	3.3%	1.6%	0.2%	0.6%	0.0%	0.0%
2023	86.4%	8.3%	3.6%	1.1%	0.2%	0.4%	0.0%	0.0%
2024	87.7%	8.8%	2.1%	1.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2021 at 90.7%. Overall it rose from 81.4% in 2009 to 87.7% in 2024, up 6.3 percentage points. It has risen in the latest release.

Biking gained the most ground in McKenzie County: its share of workers rose from 0.0% in 2009 to 1.1% in 2024, up 1.1 percentage points. Most of that increase, 0.8 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Working from home lost the most ground, falling from 11.4% to 8.8% of workers (down 2.6 percentage points).

Walking peaked at 5.2% in 2014 and has since fallen back to 2.1%.

Commute Start Times in McKenzie County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in McKenzie County?

The bars show when commuters in McKenzie 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 Dakota for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM		3.3%
5:00-5:29 AM		4.3%
5:30-5:59 AM		9.4%
6:00-6:29 AM		12.4%
6:30-6:59 AM		15.2%
7:00-7:29 AM		11.9%
7:30-7:59 AM		15.9%
8:00-8:29 AM		11.0%
8:30-8:59 AM		2.2%
9:00-9:59 AM		2.8%
10:00-10:59 AM		0.1%
11:00-11:59 AM		2.3%
12:00-3:59 PM		3.4%
4:00-11:59 PM		5.7%

McKenzie County North Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in McKenzie County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 15.9% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are more common than in North Dakota: 16.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Dakota: 54.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.4%) 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 McKenzie 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 McKenzie 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 McKenzie County next to North Dakota 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	McKenzie County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:26 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:24 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:30 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:27 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:34 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:25 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:10 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:14 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:10 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:15 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	6:58 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:14 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in McKenzie County were on the road by 7:14 AM, 12 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:26 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in McKenzie County now leave 24 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 McKenzie County has moved 3 minutes later.

How does McKenzie County's commute time compare?

Metric	McKenzie County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	16.9 min	13.8 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	06:30 AM – 06:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	8.8%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	2.1%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in McKenzie County is 16.9 minutes, longer than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 2.1% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

McKenzie County, ND Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

McKenzie County, ND is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 14,321 residents against a local median of 2,167. The measure that sets McKenzie County, ND apart most is work from home: 8.8%, 89% above the local median of 4.7%.

One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 16.9 min against a local median of 13.9 min, 21% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 21% above the local median it puts McKenzie County, ND at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 16.5% on work from home, so McKenzie County, ND sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. McKenzie County, ND has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
McKenzie County, ND	14,321	16.9 min #4/6	8.8% #2/6	7:14 AM #3/6
Williams County, ND	39,554	13.9 min	4.0%	7:40 AM
Billings County, ND	1,023	21.2 min	7.6%	7:11 AM
Dunn County, ND	4,040	21.8 min	17.0%	7:05 AM
Golden Valley County, ND	1,653	13.6 min	0.5%	7:41 AM
Divide County, ND	2,167	8.1 min	4.7%	8:00 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in McKenzie County, North Dakota.

How much does the average commute cost workers in McKenzie County, North Dakota?

Commuters here spend an estimated 140 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,355 at a typical national wage. That's 22% more than the typical North Dakota commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in McKenzie County, North Dakota?

Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in McKenzie County, North Dakota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.

Which counties in North Dakota have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in North Dakota, the shortest average commutes are in McIntosh County (6.9 min), Foster County (7.7 min), Pierce County (7.7 min). The longest are in McHenry County (28.9 min), Renville County (23.5 min), Oliver County (22.8 min).