The time you spend getting to work and back is time you can't train in. How much of it there is depends on where you live, and the Census Bureau measures it: its American Community Survey publishes the average travel time to work for every state, and the share of workers who work from home instead.1
The table is every state and the District of Columbia, from the 2020–2024 five-year estimates, with the Census Bureau's 90% margins of error.
The table
Minutes are the average trip to work, home to work, for workers who don't work from home. The work-from-home share is a percentage of all workers 16 and over who live in the state. The ± figure is the margin of error at 90%: two states whose ranges overlap are not meaningfully different. Each state links to its page on this site, which prints the same two figures with a link to the Census Bureau's table for that state.
| State | Average trip to work, minutes (± 90% MOE) | Work from home, % of workers (± 90% MOE) |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 25.5 (±0.1) | 8.8% (±0.2) |
| Alaska | 19.4 (±0.3) | 9.7% (±0.4) |
| Arizona | 25.4 (±0.1) | 18.4% (±0.2) |
| Arkansas | 22.5 (±0.2) | 8.8% (±0.2) |
| California | 28.7 (±0.1) | 17.2% (±0.1) |
| Colorado | 25.2 (±0.1) | 21.0% (±0.2) |
| Connecticut | 26.5 (±0.1) | 16.0% (±0.2) |
| Delaware | 26.0 (±0.3) | 15.0% (±0.4) |
| District of Columbia | 30.0 (±0.4) | 33.0% (±0.8) |
| Florida | 28.0 (±0.1) | 15.7% (±0.1) |
| Georgia | 28.3 (±0.1) | 15.9% (±0.2) |
| Hawaii | 26.2 (±0.2) | 9.6% (±0.3) |
| Idaho | 21.6 (±0.2) | 13.3% (±0.3) |
| Illinois | 27.8 (±0.1) | 15.9% (±0.1) |
| Indiana | 24.1 (±0.1) | 10.7% (±0.2) |
| Iowa | 19.8 (±0.1) | 11.3% (±0.2) |
| Kansas | 19.7 (±0.1) | 11.8% (±0.2) |
| Kentucky | 24.0 (±0.2) | 10.2% (±0.2) |
| Louisiana | 25.7 (±0.2) | 8.1% (±0.2) |
| Maine | 24.6 (±0.3) | 15.9% (±0.4) |
| Maryland | 31.1 (±0.1) | 19.3% (±0.2) |
| Massachusetts | 29.1 (±0.1) | 18.6% (±0.2) |
| Michigan | 24.2 (±0.1) | 13.5% (±0.1) |
| Minnesota | 22.7 (±0.1) | 17.6% (±0.1) |
| Mississippi | 25.6 (±0.2) | 5.9% (±0.2) |
| Missouri | 23.5 (±0.1) | 13.0% (±0.2) |
| Montana | 19.1 (±0.2) | 12.5% (±0.4) |
| Nebraska | 19.2 (±0.1) | 11.0% (±0.3) |
| Nevada | 24.8 (±0.2) | 11.9% (±0.3) |
| New Hampshire | 26.7 (±0.2) | 16.8% (±0.4) |
| New Jersey | 30.5 (±0.1) | 16.8% (±0.1) |
| New Mexico | 23.5 (±0.3) | 12.2% (±0.3) |
| New York | 32.6 (±0.1) | 14.9% (±0.1) |
| North Carolina | 25.1 (±0.1) | 16.3% (±0.2) |
| North Dakota | 17.9 (±0.3) | 8.1% (±0.3) |
| Ohio | 23.4 (±0.1) | 13.0% (±0.1) |
| Oklahoma | 22.4 (±0.1) | 9.4% (±0.2) |
| Oregon | 23.0 (±0.2) | 19.0% (±0.2) |
| Pennsylvania | 26.3 (±0.1) | 15.6% (±0.1) |
| Rhode Island | 25.5 (±0.3) | 13.0% (±0.5) |
| South Carolina | 25.6 (±0.1) | 11.5% (±0.2) |
| South Dakota | 17.8 (±0.2) | 9.7% (±0.3) |
| Tennessee | 25.7 (±0.1) | 12.9% (±0.2) |
| Texas | 26.7 (±0.1) | 14.4% (±0.1) |
| Utah | 22.1 (±0.1) | 17.6% (±0.3) |
| Vermont | 23.5 (±0.3) | 16.9% (±0.4) |
| Virginia | 27.3 (±0.1) | 18.3% (±0.2) |
| Washington | 26.6 (±0.1) | 19.8% (±0.2) |
| West Virginia | 26.6 (±0.3) | 9.1% (±0.3) |
| Wisconsin | 22.2 (±0.1) | 13.1% (±0.1) |
| Wyoming | 18.8 (±0.4) | 9.4% (±0.5) |
Download this table (CSV). Free to reuse with a link back to this page.
What stands out
- New York has the longest average commute, 32.6 minutes (±0.1), and Maryland is second at 31.1 (±0.1); both are clear of every other state and DC. New Jersey (30.5) and the District of Columbia (30.0) come next, close enough that their ranges touch.
- The Dakotas have the shortest: South Dakota 17.8 minutes (±0.2) and North Dakota 17.9 (±0.3). Their ranges overlap, so neither is clearly the single shortest, but both are clear of every other state. From the Dakotas to New York is a difference of nearly 15 minutes a trip.
- The District of Columbia works from home the most: 33.0% of workers (±0.8), far above any state. Among the states, Colorado's 21.0% (±0.2) is the highest, clear of the next, Washington (19.8%).
- Mississippi works from home the least: 5.9% (±0.2), clear of the next two, Louisiana and North Dakota (both 8.1%).
- The middle is about 25 minutes and about 13%. Half the states and DC are at or under a 25.2-minute average trip, and at or under 13.3% working from home. At the middle of the table, if the trip home takes as long, that's about 50 minutes a day getting to work and back.
How to read your own state's row
The number is an average across everyone who commutes in your state, short trips and long ones together, so yours may be half of it or twice it. It's also a five-year estimate: survey answers from 2020 through 2024 taken together, so it describes those years, not this one.
What it's good for is a reality check on your plan. If the average trip in your state is half an hour, a plan that assumes you'll get home early with energy to spare is a plan for someone else. Start from the hours your week really has.
Where training fits around a commute
If your commute is long
- Train before you leave, or near work. A session before the commute is one the day can't take from you; a gym near work turns part of the commute window into training. If you're choosing a slot, the best time is the one you can repeat.
- Make sessions shorter, not rarer. Two or three focused 30-minute sessions fit a long-commute week better than one long session you keep postponing.
- Put the longest session on a day without the commute. If you have weekends or a home day, that's where the full session goes.
- Count the commute only if you move in it. Walking or cycling part of the way is daily movement; sitting in traffic isn't, so plan your steps somewhere else.
If you work from home
- Your old commute is your training window. The minutes you'd spend getting to work are the easiest slot to protect: train at the hour you'd have left the house, or the hour you'd have come back.
- Walk a fake commute. A walk before you sit down and another when you stop gives the workday a start and an end, and puts a walk in it.
- Train at home if the gym trip is the obstacle. A three-day dumbbell plan needs no trip at all.
If your week changes from one week to the next (hybrid days, shifts, travel), coaching for a busy week is built for that.
Related tables: how active is your state, how active is your metro, and summer heat and winter cold by metro. The metro version: commute times by metro, plus rain by metro and how active your city is.
Where the numbers come from
Both columns come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, 2020–2024 five-year estimates, table DP03: mean travel time to work in minutes for workers 16 and over who did not work from home (DP03_0025E, margin of error DP03_0025M), and the percent of workers 16 and over who worked from home (DP03_0024PE, margin DP03_0024PM). These are the Bureau's published values and 90% margins of error, not recalculated, rounded to one decimal.1
Each state's figures were read from data.census.gov, the Census Bureau's own server, one state at a time in October 2026, and re-checked against the Bureau by a second, independent fetch: every value and margin matched.
If you reuse the table, cite the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates, table DP03; a link back here is appreciated. This page uses Census Bureau data but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
If your commute is the reason your training keeps slipping, apply, and the plan starts from the week you actually have.
General education only, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition, are pregnant, or take medication, check with your doctor before changing how you train or eat.
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2020-2024, table DP03 (ACSDP5Y2024.DP03): mean travel time to work (DP03_0025E/M) and worked from home (DP03_0024PE/PM), by state. U.S. Census Bureau, data.census.gov, 2026. https://data.census.gov/table/ACSDP5Y2024.DP03 (accessed October 19, 2026).