Commuting in Spartanburg 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, 8:17 PM
How many minutes is the average drive to work in Spartanburg County?
Map AI9/24/26, 8:17 PM
Commute Time Burden in Spartanburg County: Annual Hours and Cost
Commuters in Spartanburg County spend about 44 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 185 hours, about 7.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 1% less time on the road than the South Carolina average of 22.3 minutes each way, a difference of 0.1 minutes.
Spartanburg County holds about 6.6% of South Carolina's population but accounts for roughly 6.5% of its total commuting time.
Working from home just 2 days a week in Spartanburg County would save about 74 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $2,289 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)
Spartanburg County
22.2 min
44.3 min
185 hrs/yr
$5,723
1,832
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
22.2
minutes to get to work in
Spartanburg County.
That's 1% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.
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 8.9% work from home.
How People Get to Work in Spartanburg County
Car:
89.1%
Worked at Home:
8.9%
Other:
0.9%
Walked:
0.7%
Public Transportation:
0.1%
Bicycle:
0.1%
Taxi:
0.1%
Motorcycle:
< 0.1%
Commute Mode Trends in Spartanburg County, 2009-2024
This chart shows how workers in Spartanburg 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
94.8%
2.2%
0.7%
1.6%
0.3%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2010
94.9%
2.2%
0.5%
1.6%
0.4%
0.1%
0.2%
0.1%
2011
94.9%
2.5%
0.5%
1.4%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2012
94.7%
2.7%
0.4%
1.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2013
94.9%
2.6%
0.3%
1.6%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2014
95.1%
2.5%
0.4%
1.4%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2015
94.9%
2.6%
0.4%
1.5%
0.3%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2016
94.7%
2.6%
0.5%
1.4%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2017
94.8%
2.5%
0.5%
1.4%
0.5%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2018
94.5%
2.8%
0.5%
1.4%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2019
94.5%
3.2%
0.6%
1.2%
0.4%
0.0%
0.2%
0.1%
2020
93.3%
4.4%
0.7%
1.1%
0.3%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2021
92.1%
5.7%
0.7%
1.0%
0.2%
0.1%
0.1%
0.0%
2022
90.9%
7.0%
0.8%
1.0%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2023
90.1%
7.8%
0.9%
0.8%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
2024
89.1%
8.9%
0.9%
0.7%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
0.1%
Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2014 at 95.1%. Overall it fell from 94.8% in 2009 to 89.1% in 2024, down 5.7 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.
Working from home gained the most ground in Spartanburg County: its share of workers rose from 2.2% in 2009 to 8.9% in 2024, up 6.7 percentage points. Most of that increase, 5.7 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.
Walking lost the most ground, falling from 1.6% to 0.7% of workers (down 0.9 percentage points).
Commute Start Times in Spartanburg County
What Time Do People Leave for Work in Spartanburg County?
The bars show when commuters in Spartanburg 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.
Spartanburg CountySouth CarolinaSource: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates
The busiest time to head out in Spartanburg County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 15.3% across South Carolina. Early starts are about as common as in South Carolina: 13.9% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 13.2% there. The morning rush is more spread out than in South Carolina: 47.2% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 49.6% there. About 1 in 4 commuters (25.0%) 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 Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg 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
Spartanburg County
South Carolina
United States
2009
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
2010
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2011
7:37 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2012
7:38 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2013
7:39 AM
7:38 AM
7:39 AM
2014
7:39 AM
7:37 AM
7:39 AM
2015
7:40 AM
7:37 AM
7:38 AM
2016
7:39 AM
7:36 AM
7:38 AM
2017
7:38 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
2018
7:38 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2019
7:38 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2020
7:34 AM
7:32 AM
7:37 AM
2021
7:33 AM
7:33 AM
7:37 AM
2022
7:31 AM
7:34 AM
7:37 AM
2023
7:31 AM
7:34 AM
7:38 AM
2024
7:28 AM
7:35 AM
7:38 AM
In 2024, half of commuters in Spartanburg County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across South Carolina, where the typical start moved 2 minutes earlier. Commuters in Spartanburg County now leave 9 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 Spartanburg County has moved 9 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Spartanburg County in the whole series.
How does Spartanburg County's commute time compare?
Metric
Spartanburg County
South Carolina
US Average
Avg. Commute Time
22.2 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
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home
8.9%
11.5%
15.0%
Walked
0.7%
1.6%
2.4%
Public Transit
0.1%
0.4%
3.2%
The average commute time in Spartanburg County is about the same as in South Carolina.
0.1% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.4% in South Carolina. 0.7% commute by walking, lower than the 1.6% in South Carolina.
Spartanburg County, SC Commute Compared With Nearby Counties
Spartanburg County, SC is the 2nd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 347,752 residents against a local median of 56,649. Where Spartanburg County, SC breaks from the counties next to it is work from home, sitting 65% above the local median of 5.4% at 8.9%.
The counties themselves spread 12.4% on work from home, so Spartanburg County, SC sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Spartanburg County, SC has the 3rd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.
Common questions about commuting in Spartanburg County, South Carolina.
Is commuting expensive in Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
Commuters here spend an estimated 185 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $5,723 at a typical national wage. That's 1% less than the typical South Carolina commuter spends.
What time should you leave for work to avoid traffic in Spartanburg County, South Carolina?
Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. 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.
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).