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Vilas County Commute Time Map & Patterns

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Commuting in Vilas 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, 8:06 PM
How long is the round-trip commute in Vilas County?
Map AI 9/24/26, 8:06 PM

Commute Time Burden in Vilas County: Annual Hours and Cost

Commuters in Vilas County spend about 32 minutes on the road round trip each working day. Over a typical 250-day work year, that adds up to roughly 135 hours, about 5.6 full days, spent commuting. That is 14% less time on the road than the Wisconsin average of 18.8 minutes each way, a difference of 2.5 minutes.

Vilas County holds about 0.4% of Wisconsin's population but accounts for roughly 0.3% of its total commuting time.

Working from home just 2 days a week in Vilas County would save about 54 hours of drive time a year, worth roughly $1,676 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)
Vilas County 16.2 min 32.4 min 135 hrs/yr $4,190 437
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
  1. Ashland County (12.8 min)
  2. Door County (13.6 min)
  3. Eau Claire County (15.3 min)
Slowest commutes among counties in Wisconsin
  1. Oconto County (26.4 min)
  2. St. Croix County (25.3 min)
  3. Waushara County (23.9 min)

Compare commute times among different counties

Vilas County
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Average commute time

On average, it takes 16.2 minutes to get to work in Vilas County. That's 28% shorter than the 22.4-minute U.S. average.

Faster than 86% of counties in Wisconsin

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 11.3% work from home.

How People Get to Work in Vilas County

  • Car: 82.9%
  • Worked at Home: 11.3%
  • Walked: 3.4%
  • Bicycle: 1.0%
  • Other: 0.7%
  • Motorcycle: 0.4% unusually high
  • Public Transportation: 0.2% unusually low
  • Taxi: < 0.1% unusually low

Riding a motorcycle is unusually common in Vilas County: 4.1 times more than the Wisconsin average (0.4% vs 0.1%).

Public transit is unusually rare in Vilas County: 4.5 times less than the Wisconsin average (0.2% vs 1.1%).

Taking a taxi is essentially absent in Vilas County, versus 0.2% in Wisconsin.

Commute Mode Trends in Vilas County, 2009-2024

This chart shows how workers in Vilas 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 Bicycle Other Motorcycle Public Transportation Taxi
2009 85.5% 7.9% 5.5% 0.2% 0.6% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
2010 85.2% 7.6% 6.0% 0.3% 0.6% 0.1% 0.1% 0.1%
2011 84.8% 7.7% 6.2% 0.3% 0.6% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1%
2012 84.7% 7.1% 5.7% 0.3% 1.8% 0.0% 0.2% 0.1%
2013 86.2% 6.5% 6.0% 0.2% 0.7% 0.0% 0.3% 0.0%
2014 87.2% 6.2% 5.3% 0.3% 0.7% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0%
2015 87.8% 6.5% 4.4% 0.4% 0.6% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
2016 88.4% 6.2% 4.4% 0.3% 0.4% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
2017 88.5% 6.5% 3.8% 0.2% 0.8% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
2018 87.7% 7.8% 3.2% 0.2% 0.8% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2019 88.7% 7.2% 3.1% 0.1% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2020 87.3% 9.1% 2.7% 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.1% 0.0%
2021 85.0% 9.8% 4.0% 0.3% 0.4% 0.5% 0.1% 0.0%
2022 83.1% 11.0% 4.2% 0.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.2% 0.0%
2023 83.7% 10.8% 3.8% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0%
2024 82.9% 11.3% 3.4% 1.0% 0.7% 0.4% 0.2% 0.0%

Driving was the most common way to get to work in every release from 2009 to 2024. Its share peaked in 2019 at 88.7%. Overall it fell from 85.5% in 2009 to 82.9% in 2024, down 2.6 percentage points. It has fallen in the latest release.

Working from home gained the most ground in Vilas County: its share of workers rose from 7.9% in 2009 to 11.3% in 2024, up 3.4 percentage points. Most of that increase, 4.1 points, came in the releases after 2019, which include the pandemic years.

Walking lost the most ground, falling from 5.5% to 3.4% of workers (down 2.1 percentage points).

Commute Start Times in Vilas County

What Time Do People Leave for Work in Vilas County?

The bars show when commuters in Vilas 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
4.8%
5:00-5:29 AM
5.4%
5:30-5:59 AM
7.1%
6:00-6:29 AM
7.1%
6:30-6:59 AM
10.0%
7:00-7:29 AM
16.7%
7:30-7:59 AM
16.4%
8:00-8:29 AM
8.7%
8:30-8:59 AM
5.1%
9:00-9:59 AM
5.8%
10:00-10:59 AM
3.3%
11:00-11:59 AM
1.0%
12:00-3:59 PM
5.6%
4:00-11:59 PM
3.1%

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

The busiest time to head out in Vilas County is 7:00-7:29 AM, when 16.7% of commuters leave home, compared with 14.7% across Wisconsin. Early starts are about as common as in Wisconsin: 17.3% of commuters leave before 6 AM, versus 17.7% there. The morning rush is more concentrated than in Wisconsin: 51.9% of departures fall in the two hours from 6:30 to 8:29 AM, versus 46.8% there. About 1 in 5 commuters (18.7%) 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 Vilas 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 Vilas 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 Vilas 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 Vilas County Wisconsin United States
2009 7:38 AM 7:30 AM 7:37 AM
2010 7:41 AM 7:30 AM 7:38 AM
2011 7:41 AM 7:30 AM 7:38 AM
2012 7:46 AM 7:31 AM 7:38 AM
2013 7:45 AM 7:31 AM 7:39 AM
2014 7:44 AM 7:30 AM 7:39 AM
2015 7:42 AM 7:30 AM 7:38 AM
2016 7:42 AM 7:29 AM 7:38 AM
2017 7:39 AM 7:29 AM 7:38 AM
2018 7:43 AM 7:28 AM 7:37 AM
2019 7:43 AM 7:27 AM 7:37 AM
2020 7:36 AM 7:27 AM 7:37 AM
2021 7:41 AM 7:27 AM 7:37 AM
2022 7:37 AM 7:27 AM 7:37 AM
2023 7:31 AM 7:27 AM 7:38 AM
2024 7:28 AM 7:27 AM 7:38 AM

In 2024, half of commuters in Vilas County were on the road by 7:28 AM, 10 minutes earlier than in 2009 (7:38 AM). The shift is sharper than across Wisconsin, where the typical start moved 3 minutes earlier. Commuters in Vilas County now leave 10 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 Vilas County has moved 15 minutes earlier. The 2024 release is the earliest typical start for Vilas County in the whole series.

How does Vilas County's commute time compare?

Metric Vilas County Wisconsin US Average
Avg. Commute Time 16.2 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 11.3% 13.1% 15.0%
Walked 3.4% 2.6% 2.4%
Public Transit 0.2% 1.1% 3.2%

The average commute time in Vilas County is 16.2 minutes, shorter than the 18.8 minutes in Wisconsin.

0.2% commute by public transit, lower than the 1.1% in Wisconsin. 3.4% commute by walking, higher than the 2.6% in Wisconsin.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Vilas County, WI Commute Compared With Nearby Counties

Vilas County, WI is the 3rd largest of the 6 counties compared here, 23,647 residents against a local median of 14,317. Vilas County, WI's work from home, at 11.3%, runs 42% above the 8.0% typical of the counties around it.

The counties themselves spread 4.8% on work from home, so Vilas County, WI sits at one end of an already wide local range rather than apart from it. Vilas 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
Vilas County, WI 23,647 16.2 min #3/6 11.3% #2/6 7:28 AM #5/6
Oneida County, WI 38,164 16.0 min 10.5% 7:31 AM
Gogebic County, MI 14,317 12.6 min 7.5% 7:20 AM
Lincoln County, WI 28,426 18.8 min 11.6% 7:00 AM
Iron County, WI 6,210 16.3 min 6.8% 7:15 AM
Forest County, WI 9,369 17.4 min 8.0% 6:59 AM

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about commuting in Vilas County, Wisconsin.

What is the financial impact of commuting in Vilas County, Wisconsin?

Commuters here spend an estimated 135 hours a year on the road, worth roughly $4,190 at a typical national wage. That's 14% less than the typical Wisconsin commuter spends.

What are the busiest morning travel hours in Vilas County, Wisconsin?

Traffic peaks between 07:00 AM – 07:29 AM in Vilas 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.

How common is public transit use in Vilas County, Wisconsin?

Public transit usage is significantly lower here than typical: about 0.2% of commuters use it versus 1.1% in Wisconsin, meaning a personal vehicle is essential for most workers.

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).