Commuting in Fairfield 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, 8:30 PM
How much time do drivers in Fairfield County spend on the road daily?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:30 PM
Commute Time Burden in Fairfield County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Fairfield County spend about 62 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 256 hours, about 10.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 38% more time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 8.5 minutes.
Fairfield County holds about 0.4% of South Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 0.5% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Fairfield County would save about 103 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $3,178 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)
Fairfield County
30.8 min
61.5 min
256 hrs/yr
$7,946
1,106
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
30.8
minutes to get to work in
Fairfield County.
That's 37% longer than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
Among the 3 slowest counties in South Carolina
The most common departure window is 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM, followed by 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 6.3% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Fairfield County
Car:
90.8%
Worked at Home:
6.3%
Other:
1.4%
Walked:
1.2%
Public Transportation:
0.3%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Taxi:
< 0.1%unusually low
Bicycle:
< 0.1%unusually low
Riding a motorcycle is essentially absent in Fairfield County, versus 0.1% in South Carolina.
Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Fairfield County, versus 0.2% in South Carolina.
Biking is essentially absent in Fairfield County, versus 0.2% in South Carolina.
Commute Mode Trends in Fairfield County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Fairfield 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
Other
Walked
Public Transportation
Taxi
Motorcycle
Bicycle
2009
95.7%
1.8%
1.9%
0.4%
0.1%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2010
95.6%
2.3%
1.1%
0.7%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2011
94.0%
3.6%
1.4%
0.7%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2012
95.1%
3.0%
0.9%
0.7%
0.2%
0.0%
0.1%
0.0%
2013
94.2%
3.3%
0.5%
1.8%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2014
93.7%
3.5%
0.4%
2.2%
0.1%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2015
94.6%
3.4%
0.3%
1.4%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2016
95.5%
2.8%
0.0%
1.4%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2017
95.6%
2.9%
0.0%
1.2%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2018
96.5%
2.9%
0.0%
0.3%
0.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.1%
2019
95.4%
2.4%
0.2%
0.3%
1.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2020
94.5%
2.8%
0.8%
0.5%
1.4%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2021
93.8%
3.4%
1.0%
0.5%
1.2%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2022
92.5%
3.3%
1.4%
1.1%
1.7%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2023
91.4%
4.3%
1.6%
1.1%
1.6%
0.0%
0.0%
0.0%
2024
90.8%
6.3%
1.4%
1.2%
0.3%
0.0%
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 2018 at 96.5%. Overall it fell from 95.7% in 2009 to 90.8% in 2024, down 4.9 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 6 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Fairfield County: its share of workers rose from 1.8% in 2009 to 6.3% in 2024, up 4.5 percentage points. Most of that increase, 3.9 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Public transit peaked at 1.7% in 2022 and has since fallen back to 0.3%.
Commute Start Times in Fairfield County
🐦Early BirdThe 3rd-earliest start among South Carolina's 46 counties: half of commuters are on the road by 7:05 AM.
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Fairfield County?
The bars show when commuters in Fairfield 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.
Fairfield CountySouth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Fairfield County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.4% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across South Carolina. Early starts are more common than in South Carolina: 21.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in South Carolina: 47.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 7 commuters (15.2%) 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield 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
Fairfield County
South Carolina
United States
2009
7:20 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:19 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:22 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:23 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:23 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:22 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:22 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:14 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:11 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:15 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:14 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:14 AM
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:13 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:13 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:13 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:05 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Fairfield County were on the road by 7:05 AM, 15 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:20 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Carolina, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Fairfield County now leave 33 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 Fairfield County has moved 9 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Fairfield County in the whole series.
How does Fairfield County's commute time compare?
Metric
Fairfield County
South Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
30.8 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
06:30 AM – 06:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
6.3%
11.5%
15.0%
Walked
1.2%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.3%
0.4%
3.2%
The average commute time in Fairfield County is 30.8 minutes, longer than the 22.3 minutes in South Carolina.
0.3% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 1.2% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in South Carolina.
Fairfield County, SC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Fairfield County, SC is the smallest of the 6 counties compared here, 20,550 residents against a local median of 104,481. Fairfield County, SC's work from home, at 6.3%, runs 47% below the 11.9% typical of the counties around it.
One-way commute tells the same story from another angle: 30.8 min against a local median of 22.9 min, 34% above it. The one measure here that carries a verdict is one-way commute, and at 34% above the local median it puts Fairfield County, SC at the weaker end of the local range. The counties themselves spread 14.2% on work from home, so Fairfield County, SC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Fairfield County, SC has the 4th highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Fairfield County, South Carolina.
Is living in Fairfield County, South Carolina good for avoiding long commute costs?
Commuters here spend an estimated 256 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $7,946 at a typical national wage. That's 38% more than the typical South Carolina commuter spends.
When is peak congestion during the morning commute in Fairfield County, South Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Fairfield County, South Carolina. Leaving before or after this window is the single easiest way to avoid the heaviest local congestion, though 06:30 AM – 06:59 AM also sees a secondary bump.
Where are the quickest and slowest commutes among counties in South Carolina?
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).