Commuting in Defiance County, Ohio: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
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Is the commute in Defiance County longer than the national average?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:24 PM
Commute Time Burden in Defiance County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Defiance 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 143 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 19% less time on the road than the Ohio average of 21.1 minutes each way, a difference of 3.9 minutes.
Defiance County holds about 0.3% of Ohio's population and accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Defiance County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,771 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)
Defiance County
17.1 min
34.3 min
143 hrs/yr
$4,427
611
Ohio
21.1 min
42.2 min
176 hrs/yr
$5,447
1,212
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
17.1
minutes to get to work in
Defiance County.
That's 24% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Faster than 90% of counties in Ohio
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 6.0% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Defiance County
Car:
91.3%
Worked at Home:
6.0%
Walked:
1.4%
Other:
0.8%
Taxi:
0.3%
Bicycle:
0.1%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Public Transportation:
< 0.1%unusually low
Public transit is essentially absent in Defiance County, versus 1.0% in Ohio.
Commute Mode Trends in Defiance County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Defiance 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
Other
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
Public Transportation
2009
95.5%
1.7%
1.7%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.3%
0.3%
2010
95.8%
1.5%
1.6%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.2%
0.3%
2011
95.4%
1.8%
1.7%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
0.2%
0.3%
2012
94.8%
2.0%
1.5%
0.7%
0.0%
0.4%
0.3%
0.3%
2013
95.1%
2.0%
1.3%
0.5%
0.0%
0.3%
0.4%
0.3%
2014
94.9%
2.0%
1.6%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.4%
0.5%
2015
94.0%
2.3%
2.2%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.4%
0.3%
2016
94.0%
2.8%
2.1%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.3%
0.3%
2017
93.8%
2.6%
2.6%
0.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.4%
2018
93.1%
2.6%
2.9%
0.9%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.3%
2019
93.5%
3.0%
2.4%
0.8%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
0.3%
2020
93.1%
3.3%
2.4%
0.9%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.2%
2021
93.1%
3.5%
2.1%
1.0%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
2022
92.9%
4.0%
2.1%
0.8%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
91.6%
6.0%
1.7%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
0.0%
2024
91.3%
6.0%
1.4%
0.8%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2010 at 95.8%. Overall it fell from 95.5% in 2009 to 91.3% in 2024, down 4.2 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 3 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Defiance County: its share of workers rose from 1.7% in 2009 to 6.0% in 2024, up 4.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.0 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking peaked at 2.9% in 2018 and has since fallen back to 1.4%.
Commute Start Times in Defiance County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Defiance County?
The bars show when commuters in Defiance 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 Ohio for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
12:00-4:59 AM
12:00-4:59 AMDefiance County7.7%Ohio5.2%
7.7%
5:00-5:29 AM
5:00-5:29 AMDefiance County3.4%Ohio3.9%
3.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
5:30-5:59 AMDefiance County7.3%Ohio5.3%
7.3%
6:00-6:29 AM
6:00-6:29 AMDefiance County8.9%Ohio8.4%
8.9%
6:30-6:59 AM
6:30-6:59 AMDefiance County9.0%Ohio10.1%
9.0%
7:00-7:29 AM
7:00-7:29 AMDefiance County13.0%Ohio13.4%
13.0%
7:30-7:59 AM
7:30-7:59 AMDefiance County11.0%Ohio12.2%
11.0%
8:00-8:29 AM
8:00-8:29 AMDefiance County9.9%Ohio10.5%
9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM
8:30-8:59 AMDefiance County3.5%Ohio5.5%
3.5%
9:00-9:59 AM
9:00-9:59 AMDefiance County3.5%Ohio6.0%
3.5%
10:00-10:59 AM
10:00-10:59 AMDefiance County1.6%Ohio2.8%
1.6%
11:00-11:59 AM
11:00-11:59 AMDefiance County1.1%Ohio1.5%
1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM
12:00-3:59 PMDefiance County9.6%Ohio7.7%
9.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
4:00-11:59 PMDefiance County10.4%Ohio7.8%
10.4%
Defiance CountyOhioSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Defiance County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.0% of commuters leave home, compared with 13.4% across Ohio. Early starts are more common than in Ohio: 18.5% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 14.3% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in Ohio: 42.8% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.2% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (26.3%) 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 Defiance 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 Defiance 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 Defiance County next to Ohio 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
Defiance County
Ohio
United States
2009
7:37 AM
7:42 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:37 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:34 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:36 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:42 AM
7:42 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:43 AM
7:42 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:41 AM
7:42 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:41 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:39 AM
7:41 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:38 AM
7:40 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:37 AM
7:40 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:36 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:34 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:29 AM
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:29 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:32 AM
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Defiance County were on the road by 7:32 AM, 5 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:37 AM). The shift is sharper than across Ohio, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Defiance County now leave 6 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 Defiance County has moved 5 minutes earlier.
How does Defiance County's commute time compare?
Metric
Defiance County
Ohio
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
17.1 min
21.1 min
22.4 min
Departure Window
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
6.0%
13.0%
15.0%
Walked
1.4%
2.0%
2.4%
Public Transit
< 0.1%
1.0%
3.2%
The average commute time in Defiance County is 17.1 minutes, shorter than the 21.1 minutes in Ohio.
0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.0% in Ohio. 1.4% commute by walking, lower than the 2.0% in Ohio.
Defiance County, OH Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Defiance County, OH is typical in size for this group, 38,343 residents against a local median of 34,314, so the measures below are close to a like for like comparison. Where Defiance County, OH breaks from the counties next to it is one-way commute, sitting 17% below the local median of 20.7 min at 17.1 min. That is the better end of the local range on this measure.
The counties themselves spread 5.6 min on one-way commute, so Defiance County, OH sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Defiance County, OH has the 2nd lowest one-way commute of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Defiance County, Ohio.
Is living in Defiance County, Ohio good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 143 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,427 at a typical national wage. That's 19% less than the typical Ohio commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Defiance County, Ohio?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Defiance County, Ohio. 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.
Is public transportation a realistic commute option in Defiance County, Ohio?
Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.0% of commuters use it versus 1.0% in Ohio, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.
How do commute times compare across counties in Ohio?
Among counties in Ohio, the shortest average commutes are in Hancock County (15.3 min), Van Wert County (15.5 min), Mercer County (16.0 min). The longest are in Morgan County (32.5 min), Vinton County (32.0 min), Brown County (32.0 min).