Brown County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Brown County, Wisconsin: how long it takes, when people leave home and how they get to work. Ask Map AI about any address.

You 9/24/26, 8:26 PM

Is the commute in Brown County longer than the national average?

Map AI 9/24/26, 8:26 PM

Commute Time Burden in Brown County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Brown 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 144 hours, about 6.0 full days, spent commuting. That is 8% less time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 1.5 minutes.

Brown County holds about 4.6% of Wisconsin's population but accounts for roughly 4.2% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Brown County would save about 57 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,781 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)
Brown County	17.2 min	34.5 min	144 hrs/yr	$4,453	1,311
Wisconsin	18.8 min	37.5 min	156 hrs/yr	$4,846	811
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: Wisconsin Counties

Fastest commutes among counties in Wisconsin

Ashland County (12.8 min)
Door County (13.6 min)
Eau Claire County (15.3 min)

Slowest commutes among counties in Wisconsin

Oconto County (26.4 min)
St. Croix County (25.3 min)
Waushara County (23.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Brown County

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Average commute time

On average, it takes 17.2 minutes to get to work in Brown County. That's 23% 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 12.6% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Brown County

Commute Mode Trends in Brown County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Brown 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	Bicycle	Taxi	Motorcycle
2009	91.0%	3.4%	2.4%	1.1%	1.1%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2010	91.0%	3.7%	2.4%	1.0%	1.0%	0.5%	0.0%	0.4%
2011	90.6%	3.9%	2.5%	1.2%	1.1%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2012	90.4%	4.3%	2.4%	1.1%	1.0%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2013	90.7%	4.0%	2.5%	1.0%	0.9%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%
2014	91.2%	3.9%	2.4%	1.0%	0.8%	0.4%	0.0%	0.3%
2015	91.3%	3.6%	2.5%	1.1%	0.8%	0.4%	0.1%	0.2%
2016	91.4%	3.7%	2.4%	1.1%	0.7%	0.4%	0.1%	0.3%
2017	91.2%	4.0%	2.3%	1.1%	0.7%	0.3%	0.1%	0.2%
2018	91.8%	4.0%	2.0%	1.0%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.2%
2019	91.9%	4.4%	1.7%	0.8%	0.8%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2020	90.7%	5.8%	1.8%	0.6%	0.7%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2021	89.2%	7.7%	1.7%	0.5%	0.5%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
2022	88.0%	8.9%	1.6%	0.6%	0.6%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2023	86.4%	10.4%	1.7%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.1%	0.1%
2024	84.0%	12.6%	1.8%	0.7%	0.4%	0.2%	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 2019 at 91.9%. Overall it fell from 91.0% in 2009 to 84.0% in 2024, down 7.0 percentage points. It has fallen in each of the last 5 releases.

Working from home gained the most ground in Brown County: its share of workers rose from 3.4% in 2009 to 12.6% in 2024, up 9.2 percentage points. Most of that increase, 8.2 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Public transit lost the most ground, falling from 1.1% to 0.4% of workers (down 0.7 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Brown County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Brown County?

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

12:00-4:59 AM		7.0%
5:00-5:29 AM		5.1%
5:30-5:59 AM		7.1%
6:00-6:29 AM		7.3%
6:30-6:59 AM		11.3%
7:00-7:29 AM		15.7%
7:30-7:59 AM		13.6%
8:00-8:29 AM		7.8%
8:30-8:59 AM		3.0%
9:00-9:59 AM		4.2%
10:00-10:59 AM		2.2%
11:00-11:59 AM		1.1%
12:00-3:59 PM		8.2%
4:00-11:59 PM		6.3%

Brown County Wisconsin Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 5-year estimates

The busiest time to head out in Brown County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 15.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are more common than in Wisconsin: 19.1% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush looks much like Wisconsin's: 48.5% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (22.1%) 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 Brown 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 Brown 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 Brown County next to Wisconsin 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	Brown County	Wisconsin	United States
2009	7:30 AM	7:30 AM	7:37 AM
2010	7:29 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2011	7:28 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2012	7:28 AM	7:31 AM	7:38 AM
2013	7:27 AM	7:31 AM	7:39 AM
2014	7:27 AM	7:30 AM	7:39 AM
2015	7:27 AM	7:30 AM	7:38 AM
2016	7:27 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2017	7:27 AM	7:29 AM	7:38 AM
2018	7:27 AM	7:28 AM	7:37 AM
2019	7:26 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2020	7:25 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2021	7:26 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2022	7:24 AM	7:27 AM	7:37 AM
2023	7:22 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM
2024	7:23 AM	7:27 AM	7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Brown County were on the road by 7:23 AM, 6 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:30 AM). The shift is sharper than across Wisconsin, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Brown County now leave 14 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 Brown County has moved 2 minutes earlier.

How does Brown County's commute time compare?

Metric	Brown County	Wisconsin	US Average
Avg. Commute Time	17.2 min	18.8 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	12.6%	13.1%	15.0%
Walked	1.8%	2.6%	2.4%
Public Transit	0.4%	1.1%	3.2%

The average commute time in Brown County is 17.2 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.4% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 1.8% commute by walking, lower than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Brown County, WI Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Brown County, WI is the largest of the 6 counties compared here, 270,600 residents against a local median of 52,942. There is no headline here. Every measure below sits within 15% of the median across the nearest counties, which makes Brown County, WI an unremarkable member of its own neighbourhood rather than an outlier in it.

The largest of those small differences is work from home, 9% above the local median at 12.6% against 11.5%. Brown County, WI has the 2nd highest work from home of the 6 areas compared here.

Area	Population	One-way commute	Work from home	Typical departure
Brown County, WI	270,600	17.2 min #2/6	12.6% #2/6	7:23 AM #5/6
Calumet County, WI	52,942	18.5 min	14.4%	7:18 AM
Outagamie County, WI	192,703	18.0 min	11.5%	7:25 AM
Oconto County, WI	39,589	26.4 min	12.5%	6:56 AM
Manitowoc County, WI	81,406	16.4 min	7.8%	7:08 AM
Kewaunee County, WI	20,663	23.2 min	10.2%	7:01 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Brown County, Wisconsin.

How much does the average commute cost workers in Brown County, Wisconsin?

Commuters here spend an estimated 144 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,453 at a typical national wage. That's 8% less than the typical Wisconsin commuter spends.

When is rush hour worst in Brown County, Wisconsin?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Brown County, Wisconsin. 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 Wisconsin have the fastest and slowest commutes?

Among counties in Wisconsin, the shortest average commutes are in Ashland County (12.8 min), Door County (13.6 min), Eau Claire County (15.3 min). The longest are in Oconto County (26.4 min), St. Croix County (25.3 min), Waushara County (23.9 min).