Commuting in New Hampshire: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 11:43 AM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in New Hampshire?
Map AI9/24/26, 11:43 AM
Commute Time Burden in New Hampshire: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in New Hampshire spend about 45 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 188 hours, about 7.8 full days, spent commuting. That is about the same time on the road as the US average of 22.4 minutes each way.
New Hampshire holds about 0.4% of US's population and accounts for roughly 0.4% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in New Hampshire 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)
New Hampshire
22.5 min
45.0 min
188 hrs/yr
$5,813
1,232
US
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
22.5
minutes to get to work in
New Hampshire.
That's about the same as the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 75% of states in US
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 16.8% work from home.
How People Get to Work in New Hampshire
Car:
79.0%
Worked at Home:
16.8%
Walked:
2.3%
Other:
1.0%
Public Transportation:
0.5%unusually low
Bicycle:
0.2%
Taxi:
0.1%
Motorcycle:
0.1%
Public transit is unusually rare in New Hampshire: 6.0 times less than the US average (0.5% vs 3.2%).
Commute Mode Trends in New Hampshire, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in New Hampshire 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
Public Transportation
Bicycle
Taxi
Motorcycle
2009
90.1%
4.8%
3.2%
0.7%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2010
89.8%
5.1%
3.2%
0.7%
0.7%
0.3%
0.0%
0.1%
2011
89.5%
5.4%
3.1%
0.7%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
2012
89.4%
5.5%
3.1%
0.8%
0.8%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
2013
89.4%
5.6%
3.0%
0.8%
0.8%
0.2%
0.0%
0.2%
2014
89.2%
5.8%
2.9%
0.8%
0.8%
0.2%
0.0%
0.2%
2015
89.1%
6.0%
2.8%
0.8%
0.8%
0.2%
0.0%
0.2%
2016
88.9%
6.1%
2.9%
0.8%
0.9%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
2017
88.9%
6.1%
2.8%
0.9%
0.9%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2018
88.7%
6.4%
2.7%
0.9%
0.8%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2019
88.5%
6.6%
2.7%
0.8%
0.9%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2020
87.2%
8.3%
2.5%
0.8%
0.8%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
2021
84.9%
10.8%
2.4%
0.8%
0.7%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2022
82.8%
13.1%
2.2%
0.8%
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2023
80.8%
15.1%
2.2%
0.9%
0.6%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
2024
79.0%
16.8%
2.3%
1.0%
0.5%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Overall its share fell from 90.1% in 2009 to 79.0% in 2024, down 11.1 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 7 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in New Hampshire: its share of workers rose from 4.8% in 2009 to 16.8% in 2024, up 12.0 percentage points. Most of that increase, 10.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 3.2% to 2.3% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in New Hampshire
What Time Do People Leave for Work in New Hampshire?
The bars show when commuters in New Hampshire 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 the U.S. for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMNew Hampshire5.2%The U.S.5.5%
5.2%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMNew Hampshire4.0%The U.S.4.0%
4.0%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMNew Hampshire5.1%The U.S.4.9%
5.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMNew Hampshire8.9%The U.S.8.7%
8.9%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMNew Hampshire11.3%The U.S.9.4%
11.3%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMNew Hampshire15.1%The U.S.14.4%
15.1%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMNew Hampshire12.9%The U.S.11.9%
12.9%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMNew Hampshire10.7%The U.S.11.5%
10.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMNew Hampshire5.5%The U.S.5.5%
5.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMNew Hampshire5.8%The U.S.6.8%
5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMNew Hampshire2.6%The U.S.3.1%
2.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMNew Hampshire1.5%The U.S.1.5%
1.5%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMNew Hampshire6.7%The U.S.6.8%
6.7%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMNew Hampshire4.7%The U.S.6.1%
4.7%
New HampshireThe U.S.Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in New Hampshire is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.1% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.4% across the U.S.. Early starts are about as common as in the U.S.: 14.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.4% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in the U.S.: 50.0% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 47.1% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.3%) 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 New Hampshire, 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire next to 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
New Hampshire
United States
2009
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:33 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:32 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:33 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:31 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:31 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in New Hampshire were on the road by 7:31 AM, 3 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:34 AM). Commuters in New Hampshire now leave 7 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 New Hampshire has moved 2 minutes earlier.
How does New Hampshire's commute time compare?
Metric
New Hampshire
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
22.5 min
22.4 min
Work From Home
16.8%
15.0%
Walked
2.3%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.5%
3.2%
The average commute time in New Hampshire is 22.5 minutes, longer than the 22.4 minutes in US.
0.5% commute by public transit, lower than the 3.2% in US. 2.3% commute by walking, lower than the 2.4% in US.
New Hampshire is typical in size for this group, 1,394,471 residents against a local median of 1,387,521, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Nothing separates New Hampshire sharply from the states 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 work from home, 4% above the local median at 16.8% against 16.2%. New Hampshire has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in New Hampshire.
How much does the average commute cost workers in New Hampshire?
Commuters here spend an estimated 188 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,813 at a typical national wage.
When is rush hour worst in New Hampshire?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in New Hampshire. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
How common is public transit use in New Hampshire?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.5% of commuters use it versus 3.2% in the U.S., meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
Which counties in New Hampshire have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in New Hampshire, the shortest average commutes are in Coos County (17.5 min), Grafton County (17.5 min), Cheshire County (18.6 min). The longest are in Rockingham County (25.8 min), Sullivan County (23.5 min), Merrimack County (23.0 min).