Commuting in Pembina County, North Dakota: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:17 PM
Is the commute in Pembina County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:17 PM
Commute Time Burden in Pembina County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Pembina County spend about 26 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 107 hours, about 4.5 full days, spent commuting. That is 7% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 0.9 minutes.
Pembina County holds about 0.9% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 0.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Pembina County would save about 43 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,333 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)
Pembina County
12.9 min
25.8 min
107 hrs/yr
$3,332
144
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.
On average, it takes
12.9
minutes to get to work in
Pembina County.
That's 42% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 7.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Pembina County
Car:
84.7%
Worked at Home:
7.9%
Walked:
5.3%
Bicycle:
1.3%unusually high
Other:
0.3%
Motorcycle:
0.3%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is essentially absent in Pembina County, versus 0.3% in North Dakota.
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Pembina County, versus 0.1% in North Dakota.
Biking is unusually common in Pembina County: 5.0 times more than the North Dakota average (1.3% vs 0.3%).
Commute Mode Trends in Pembina County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Pembina 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
Motorcycle
Other
Public Transportation
Taxi
2009
85.1%
6.0%
7.3%
0.9%
0.3%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
2010
85.0%
6.6%
7.4%
0.6%
0.0%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
86.2%
6.0%
6.6%
0.6%
0.0%
0.5%
0.2%
0.0%
2012
87.8%
5.6%
5.6%
0.5%
0.0%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
2013
89.5%
4.6%
5.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2014
89.3%
4.4%
5.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2015
88.9%
4.9%
5.3%
0.4%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
0.0%
2016
89.1%
5.2%
4.9%
0.2%
0.1%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
2017
88.1%
6.0%
4.6%
0.5%
0.1%
0.6%
0.0%
0.0%
2018
87.7%
5.5%
5.1%
0.6%
0.1%
1.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2019
87.5%
6.0%
4.3%
0.5%
0.3%
1.3%
0.1%
0.0%
2020
86.5%
7.0%
3.6%
0.6%
0.1%
2.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2021
87.8%
6.0%
3.3%
0.8%
0.1%
1.7%
0.3%
0.0%
2022
89.1%
5.4%
3.0%
0.8%
0.2%
1.2%
0.3%
0.0%
2023
87.1%
7.3%
3.6%
1.0%
0.5%
0.4%
0.2%
0.0%
2024
84.7%
7.9%
5.3%
1.3%
0.3%
0.3%
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 2013 at 89.5%. Overall it held roughly steady, at 85.1% in 2009 and 84.7% in 2024. It has fallen in each of the last 2 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Pembina County: its share of workers rose from 6.0% in 2009 to 7.9% in 2024, up 1.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 1.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 7.3% to 5.3% of workers (down 2.0 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 Pembina County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Pembina County?
The bars show when commuters in Pembina 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
12:00-4:59 AMPembina County5.4%North Dakota3.6%
5.4%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMPembina County5.3%North Dakota2.7%
5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMPembina County4.5%North Dakota4.4%
4.5%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMPembina County5.7%North Dakota6.7%
5.7%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMPembina County12.9%North Dakota11.2%
12.9%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMPembina County16.3%North Dakota14.8%
16.3%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMPembina County18.8%North Dakota20.9%
18.8%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMPembina County13.3%North Dakota11.0%
13.3%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMPembina County3.6%North Dakota4.7%
3.6%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMPembina County5.1%North Dakota4.5%
5.1%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMPembina County0.9%North Dakota2.3%
0.9%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMPembina County0.8%North Dakota1.0%
0.8%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMPembina County4.3%North Dakota6.4%
4.3%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMPembina County3.2%North Dakota5.9%
3.2%
Pembina CountyNorth DakotaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Pembina County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 18.8% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are more common than in North Dakota: 15.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in North Dakota: 61.3% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (14.2%) 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 Pembina 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 Pembina 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 Pembina 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
Pembina County
North Dakota
United States
2009
7:31 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:32 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:33 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:32 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:33 AM
7:40 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:34 AM
7:39 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:35 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:31 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:29 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:31 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:30 AM
7:40 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Pembina County were on the road by 7:30 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:31 AM). North Dakota followed the same path, with the typical start moving 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Pembina County now leave 8 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 Pembina County has moved 4 minutes earlier.
How does Pembina County's commute time compare?
Metric
Pembina County
North Dakota
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
12.9 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
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
7.9%
8.1%
15.0%
Walked
5.3%
3.2%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
0.3%
3.2%
The average commute time in Pembina County is 12.9 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.
0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 5.3% commute by walking, higher than the 3.2% in North Dakota.
Pembina County, ND Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Pembina County, ND is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 6,727 residents against a local median of 4,084. Nothing separates Pembina County, ND sharply from the counties around it. Each measure below lands within 15% of the local median, close enough that the differences are within what survey sampling alone would produce.
The largest of those small differences is one-way commute, 3% above the local median at 12.9 min against 12.5 min. Pembina County, ND has the 5th lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Pembina County, North Dakota.
Is commuting expensive in Pembina County, North Dakota?
Commuters here spend an estimated 107 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $3,332 at a typical national wage. That's 7% less than the typical North Dakota commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Pembina County, North Dakota?
Traffic peaks between 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM in Pembina County, North Dakota. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How common is public transit use in Pembina County, North Dakota?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 0.3% in North Dakota, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in North Dakota?
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).