Stark County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Stark County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Stark County spend about 25 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 106 hours, about 4.4 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the North Dakota average of 13.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.1 minutes.

Stark County holds about 4.2% of North Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 3.9% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Stark County would save about 42 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,314 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)
Stark County	12.7 min	25.4 min	106 hrs/yr	$3,284	458
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

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 12.7 minutes to get to work in Stark County. That's 43% 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 7.1% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Stark County

• Car: 89.0%
• Worked at Home: 7.1%
• Other: 2.1%
• Walked: 1.6%
• Bicycle: 0.1%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low
• Motorcycle: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually rare in Stark County: 6.1 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.2%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Stark County: 6.3 times less than the North Dakota average (0.1% vs 0.3%).

Taking a taxi is unusually rare in Stark County: 3.1 times less than the North Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.1%).

Commute Mode Trends in Stark County, 2009-2024

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

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Other	Walked	Public Transportation	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	89.7%	6.2%	0.7%	2.9%	0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.2%
2010	90.4%	5.8%	0.9%	2.5%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2011	90.6%	5.8%	0.6%	2.6%	0.0%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%
2012	90.6%	5.4%	0.9%	2.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%
2013	91.2%	4.6%	1.1%	2.6%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2014	91.7%	4.9%	0.8%	2.3%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%	0.1%
2015	91.8%	4.5%	0.7%	2.5%	0.2%	0.2%	0.0%	0.1%
2016	91.3%	4.2%	0.6%	3.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2017	92.0%	4.0%	0.3%	3.1%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%
2018	90.4%	4.8%	0.4%	3.0%	1.0%	0.3%	0.0%	0.0%
2019	90.4%	4.8%	0.5%	2.7%	1.2%	0.3%	0.1%	0.0%
2020	88.6%	7.6%	0.5%	2.2%	0.8%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2021	89.3%	7.4%	0.6%	1.6%	0.9%	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	90.3%	6.5%	0.8%	1.5%	0.8%	0.0%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	90.6%	6.8%	0.5%	1.7%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	89.0%	7.1%	2.1%	1.6%	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 was highest in 2017 at 92.0% and lowest in 2020 at 88.6%. Overall it fell from 89.7% in 2009 to 89.0% in 2024, down 0.7 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Stark County: its share of workers rose from 6.2% in 2009 to 7.1% in 2024, up 0.9 percentage points. Most of that increase, 2.3 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.9% to 1.6% of workers (down 1.3 percentage points).

Public transit peaked at 1.2% in 2019 and has since fallen back to 0.1%.

Commute Start Times in Stark County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Stark County?

The bars show when commuters in Stark 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 AM Stark County4.8% North Dakota3.6%	4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Stark County5.3% North Dakota2.7%	5.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Stark County6.6% North Dakota4.4%	6.6%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Stark County9.7% North Dakota6.7%	9.7%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Stark County13.7% North Dakota11.2%	13.7%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Stark County15.1% North Dakota14.8%	15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Stark County17.6% North Dakota20.9%	17.6%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Stark County7.4% North Dakota11.0%	7.4%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Stark County2.6% North Dakota4.7%	2.6%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Stark County3.5% North Dakota4.5%	3.5%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Stark County3.3% North Dakota2.3%	3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Stark County0.4% North Dakota1.0%	0.4%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Stark County4.5% North Dakota6.4%	4.5%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Stark County5.5% North Dakota5.9%	5.5%

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

The busiest time to head out in Stark County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 17.6% of commuters leave home, compared with 20.9% across North Dakota. Early starts are more common than in North Dakota: 16.7% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 10.7% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in North Dakota: 53.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.9% there. About 1 in 6 commuters (17.1%) 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 Stark 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 Stark 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 Stark 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.

• Stark County
• North Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Stark County	North Dakota	United States
2009	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:37 AM	7:42 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:35 AM	7:41 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:33 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:34 AM	7:40 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:32 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:28 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:27 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:26 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:22 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:19 AM	7:38 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:23 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:19 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:20 AM	7:39 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:19 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:20 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Stark County were on the road by 7:20 AM, 17 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:37 AM). The shift is sharper than across North Dakota, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Stark County now leave 18 minutes earlier than the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Stark County's commute time compare?

Metric	Stark County	North Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	12.7 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	7.1%	8.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.6%	3.2%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.3%	3.2%

The average commute time in Stark County is 12.7 minutes, shorter than the 13.8 minutes in North Dakota.

0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.3% in North Dakota. 1.6% commute by walking, lower than the 3.2% in North Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau