Census Releases 2019 ACS Commute Patterns Data

The Census Bureau released their annual American Community Survey data with 2019 estimates in December. In addition to demographic and housing data, commute modes and times for workers are also included both at the 1-year and 5-year aggregate data level and at the more localized Census tract and block group data level.

For Washtenaw County, the last ten years of ACS estimates show that the share of workers who work from home has risen slightly, while carpooling has gotten relatively less popular. Work-from-home was 5.1 percent of all workers in 2010 and rose to 5.9 percent in 2019. Meanwhile, carpools were 8.2 percent of total workers in 2010 but declined to 7.5 percent in 2019. The share of workers who use public transportation also rose from 3.0 percent in 2010 to 4.5 percent in 2019.

As shown here, even before COVID, work-from-home was on the rise, with essentially zero commute time (we’re not counting that walk from your bedroom to your living room for this analysis). When the COVID ACS data for 2020 is released a year from now, we expect the numbers for work-from-home to skyrocket and the numbers for carpools and public transportation to plummet.  

Even though more and more Washtenaw County residents are working from home, the time of the average daily commute continues to rise, from 22.6 minutes each way in 2010 to 24.4 minutes in 2019.

When the 2020 ACS comes out next year, we expect to see some sharp changes in commute patterns because of COVID. 

The ACS releases new data every year, in the form of estimates, in a variety of tables, tools, and analytical reports. The full dataset of ACS data is now available at https://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/