Commuting in Berkeley County, South Carolina: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.
You9/24/26, 8:01 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Berkeley County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:01 PM
Commute Time Burden in Berkeley County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Berkeley County spend about 56 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 232 hours, about 9.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 25% more time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 5.6 minutes.
Berkeley County holds about 4.7% of South Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 5.8% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Berkeley County would save about 93 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,876 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)
Berkeley County
27.8 min
55.7 min
232 hrs/yr
$7,190
2,570
South Carolina
22.3 min
44.5 min
186 hrs/yr
$5,753
1,499
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
27.8
minutes to get to work in
Berkeley County.
That's 24% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Slower than 73% of counties in South Carolina
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 12.4% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Berkeley County
Car:
84.4%
Worked at Home:
12.4%
Walked:
1.7%
Other:
1.0%
Public Transportation:
0.2%
Bicycle:
0.1%
Taxi:
0.1%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Commute Mode Trends in Berkeley County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Berkeley 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
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
92.2%
3.1%
2.9%
0.5%
0.6%
0.1%
0.3%
0.2%
2010
91.7%
3.4%
3.3%
0.5%
0.6%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2011
91.8%
3.0%
3.3%
0.6%
0.7%
0.2%
0.1%
0.2%
2012
91.9%
3.0%
3.2%
0.6%
0.7%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
2013
91.8%
2.9%
3.2%
0.6%
0.8%
0.2%
0.3%
0.2%
2014
92.0%
2.9%
3.2%
0.7%
0.8%
0.2%
0.2%
0.2%
2015
92.1%
2.9%
3.0%
0.7%
0.8%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
92.1%
3.3%
2.9%
0.7%
0.7%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
91.8%
3.6%
2.9%
0.7%
0.6%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2018
91.5%
4.0%
2.9%
0.7%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2019
91.3%
4.5%
2.6%
0.7%
0.4%
0.1%
0.1%
0.3%
2020
91.2%
4.9%
2.3%
0.7%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
0.3%
2021
89.0%
7.5%
1.9%
0.7%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
0.3%
2022
88.0%
8.4%
1.9%
0.8%
0.5%
0.1%
0.1%
0.2%
2023
86.5%
10.2%
1.9%
0.9%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2024
84.4%
12.4%
1.7%
1.0%
0.2%
0.1%
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 92.2% in 2009 to 84.4% in 2024, down 7.8 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 8 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Berkeley County: its share of workers rose from 3.1% in 2009 to 12.4% in 2024, up 9.3 percentage points. Most of that increase, 7.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 2.9% to 1.7% of workers (down 1.2 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Berkeley County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Berkeley County?
The bars show when commuters in Berkeley 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 South Carolina for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.
Berkeley CountySouth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Berkeley County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 13.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across South Carolina. Early starts are more common than in South Carolina: 18.2% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in South Carolina: 42.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (21.5%) 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 Berkeley 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 Berkeley 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 Berkeley County next to South Carolina 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
Berkeley County
South Carolina
United States
2009
7:15 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:15 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:17 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:17 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:18 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:18 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:17 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:16 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:15 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:13 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:12 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:11 AM
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:13 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:14 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:14 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:17 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Berkeley County were on the road by 7:17 AM, 2 minutes later than in 2009 (7:15 AM). That goes against the trend across South Carolina, where the typical commuter now leaves 2 minutes earlier than in 2009. Commuters in Berkeley County now leave 21 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 Berkeley County has moved 5 minutes later.
How does Berkeley County's commute time compare?
Metric
Berkeley County
South Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
27.8 min
22.3 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
06:00 AM – 06:29 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
12.4%
11.5%
15.0%
Walked
1.7%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.2%
0.4%
3.2%
The average commute time in Berkeley County is 27.8 minutes, longer than the 22.3 minutes in South Carolina.
0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 1.7% commute by walking, higher than the 1.6% in South Carolina.
Berkeley County, SC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Berkeley County, SC is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 246,888 residents against a local median of 64,818. Where Berkeley County, SC breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 22% above the local median of 10.1% at 12.4%.
The counties themselves spread 11.2% on work from home, so Berkeley County, SC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Berkeley County, SC has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Berkeley County, South Carolina.
Is commuting expensive in Berkeley County, South Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 232 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,190 at a typical national wage. That's 25% more than the typical South Carolina commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Berkeley County, South Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:00 AM – 06:29 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Which counties in South Carolina have the fastest and slowest commutes?
Among counties in South Carolina, the shortest average commutes are in Greenwood County (16.5 min), Sumter County (18.2 min), Florence County (18.3 min). The longest are in McCormick County (33.9 min), Fairfield County (30.8 min), Chester County (30.6 min).