Perkins County Commute Time Map & Patterns

Commute Time Burden in Perkins County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Perkins County spend about 16 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 66 hours, about 2.7 full days, spent commuting. That is 49% less time on the road than the South Dakota average of 15.3 minutes each way, a difference of 7.5 minutes.

Perkins County holds about 0.3% of South Dakota's population but accounts for roughly 0.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Perkins County would save about 26 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $813 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)
Perkins County	7.9 min	15.7 min	66 hrs/yr	$2,032	52
South Dakota	15.3 min	30.7 min	128 hrs/yr	$3,961	353
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.

Commute Time Map: South Dakota Counties

Compare commute times among different counties

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On average, it takes 7.9 minutes to get to work in Perkins County. That's 65% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Among the top 5 fastest counties in South Dakota

The most common departure window is 07:30 AM – 07:59 AM, followed by 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM. Driving is the most common commute choice, followed by working from home. About 32.9% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Perkins County

• Car: 62.2% unusually low
• Worked at Home: 32.9% unusually high
• Walked: 4.1%
• Motorcycle: 0.3%
• Bicycle: 0.3%
• Other: 0.2%
• Public Transportation: < 0.1% unusually low
• Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Driving is 27% less common in Perkins County than the South Dakota average (62.2% vs 85.4%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Perkins County: 7676.9 times less than the South Dakota average (0.0% vs 0.5%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Perkins County, versus 0.1% in South Dakota.

Working from home is unusually common in Perkins County: 3.4 times more than the South Dakota average (32.9% vs 9.7%).

Commute Mode Trends in Perkins County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Perkins 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.

• Car
• Worked at Home
• Walked
• Motorcycle
• Bicycle
• Other
• Public Transportation
• Taxi

Show commute mode data by year

Year	Car	Worked at Home	Walked	Motorcycle	Bicycle	Other	Public Transportation	Taxi
2009	66.7%	16.9%	10.7%	1.1%	0.7%	2.3%	1.6%	0.0%
2010	68.6%	16.0%	11.4%	1.0%	0.4%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%
2011	73.1%	11.7%	12.2%	0.1%	0.3%	1.6%	1.0%	0.0%
2012	74.7%	14.6%	8.2%	0.2%	0.4%	1.5%	0.4%	0.0%
2013	72.2%	17.3%	8.8%	0.3%	0.2%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2014	73.4%	17.2%	7.3%	0.3%	0.2%	1.0%	0.6%	0.0%
2015	72.2%	19.6%	6.2%	0.2%	0.6%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%
2016	70.8%	21.2%	6.9%	0.2%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.0%
2017	65.3%	24.9%	8.2%	0.1%	0.5%	0.1%	0.9%	0.0%
2018	64.8%	26.4%	6.9%	0.4%	0.6%	0.1%	0.7%	0.0%
2019	64.5%	26.3%	6.8%	0.3%	0.4%	0.3%	1.5%	0.0%
2020	62.3%	30.5%	6.0%	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%	0.8%	0.0%
2021	60.1%	34.8%	3.5%	0.1%	0.4%	0.2%	0.9%	0.0%
2022	65.2%	30.5%	3.1%	0.5%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2023	68.1%	27.9%	3.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.2%	0.1%	0.0%
2024	62.2%	32.9%	4.1%	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%	0.0%	0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share was highest in 2012 at 74.7% and lowest in 2021 at 60.1%. Overall it fell from 66.7% in 2009 to 62.2% in 2024, down 4.5 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Perkins County: its share of workers rose from 16.9% in 2009 to 32.9% in 2024, up 16.0 percentage points.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 10.7% to 4.1% of workers (down 6.6 percentage points).

Working from home peaked at 34.8% in 2021 and has since fallen back to 32.9%.

Commute Start Times in Perkins County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Perkins County?

The bars show when commuters in Perkins 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 Dakota for comparison. Hover over or tap a row for the exact numbers.

12:00-4:59 AM	12:00-4:59 AM Perkins County0.7% South Dakota4.1%	0.7%
5:00-5:29 AM	5:00-5:29 AM Perkins County3.3% South Dakota3.1%	3.3%
5:30-5:59 AM	5:30-5:59 AM Perkins County2.5% South Dakota5.1%	2.5%
6:00-6:29 AM	6:00-6:29 AM Perkins County5.4% South Dakota6.9%	5.4%
6:30-6:59 AM	6:30-6:59 AM Perkins County14.0% South Dakota11.3%	14.0%
7:00-7:29 AM	7:00-7:29 AM Perkins County15.3% South Dakota16.2%	15.3%
7:30-7:59 AM	7:30-7:59 AM Perkins County33.3% South Dakota19.9%	33.3%
8:00-8:29 AM	8:00-8:29 AM Perkins County9.9% South Dakota10.2%	9.9%
8:30-8:59 AM	8:30-8:59 AM Perkins County3.7% South Dakota3.7%	3.7%
9:00-9:59 AM	9:00-9:59 AM Perkins County2.7% South Dakota4.3%	2.7%
10:00-10:59 AM	10:00-10:59 AM Perkins County2.0% South Dakota2.0%	2.0%
11:00-11:59 AM	11:00-11:59 AM Perkins County0.5% South Dakota1.4%	0.5%
12:00-3:59 PM	12:00-3:59 PM Perkins County5.0% South Dakota6.1%	5.0%
4:00-11:59 PM	4:00-11:59 PM Perkins County1.9% South Dakota5.8%	1.9%

Perkins County South Dakota Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Perkins County is 7:30-7:59 AM, when 33.3% of commuters leave home, compared with 19.9% across South Dakota. Early starts are less common than in South Dakota: 6.4% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 12.2% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in South Dakota: 72.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 57.7% there. About 1 in 8 commuters (12.0%) 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 Perkins 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 Perkins 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 Perkins County next to South Dakota 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.

• Perkins County
• South Dakota
• United States

Show typical departure times by year

Year	Perkins County	South Dakota	United States
2009	7:39 AM	7:40 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:38 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:41 AM	7:40 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:39 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:38 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:33 AM	7:39 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:30 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:33 AM	7:38 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:38 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:39 AM	7:37 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:38 AM	7:36 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:37 AM	7:37 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:38 AM	7:35 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Perkins County were on the road by 7:38 AM, 1 minute earlier than in 2009 (7:39 AM). Across South Dakota the shift was bigger still, with the typical start moving 5 minutes earlier. Commuters in Perkins County now leave at about the same time as the typical American commuter (7:38 AM).

How does Perkins County's commute time compare?

Metric	Perkins County	South Dakota	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	7.9 min	15.3 min	22.4 min
Departure Window	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM
Secondary Departure Window	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:00 AM – 07:29 AM	07:30 AM – 07:59 AM
Work From Home	32.9%	9.7%	15.0%
Walked	4.1%	3.1%	2.4%
Public Transit	< 0.1%	0.5%	3.2%

The average commute time in Perkins County is 7.9 minutes, shorter than the 15.3 minutes in South Dakota.

0.0% commute by public transit, lower than the 0.5% in South Dakota. 4.1% commute by walking, higher than the 3.1% in South Dakota.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau