About this application: This application provides summary profiles showing frequently requested data items from various US Census Bureau programs. Profiles are available for the nation, states, and counties.
Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16 years+, 2014-2018 - (Minutes)
County
Value
Alameda
33.4
Alpine
21.6
Amador
31.6
Butte
21.0
Calaveras
37.9
Colusa
25.1
Contra Costa
38.0
Del Norte
14.6
El Dorado
29.3
Fresno
22.6
Glenn
21.8
Humboldt
18.1
Imperial
22.0
Inyo
16.3
Kern
23.3
Kings
22.9
Lake
30.4
Lassen
20.8
Los Angeles
31.3
Madera
27.1
Marin
32.5
Mariposa
28.7
Mendocino
20.1
Merced
27.4
Modoc
15.5
Mono
15.9
Monterey
22.7
Napa
24.9
Nevada
24.8
Orange
27.7
Placer
27.4
Plumas
19.9
Riverside
33.3
Sacramento
27.4
San Benito
35.3
San Bernardino
31.4
San Diego
26.0
San Francisco
33.3
San Joaquin
33.2
San Luis Obispo
22.2
San Mateo
28.8
Santa Barbara
19.8
Santa Clara
28.7
Santa Cruz
27.0
Shasta
20.4
Sierra
28.1
Siskiyou
18.5
Solano
32.6
Sonoma
25.4
Stanislaus
29.0
Sutter
26.7
Tehama
23.4
Trinity
19.6
Tulare
22.7
Tuolumne
26.9
Ventura
26.8
Yolo
23.6
Yuba
30.4
Value for California (Minutes): 29.3
Data item: Mean travel time to work (minutes), workers age 16 years+, 2014-2018
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS) and Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS), 5-Year Estimates. The PRCS is part of the Census Bureau's ACS, customized for Puerto Rico. Both Surveys are updated every year.
Definition
Travel time to work refers to the total number of minutes that it usually took the person to get from home to work each day during the reference week. The elapsed time includes time spent waiting for public transportation, picking up passengers in carpools, and time spent in other activities related to getting to work.
Mean travel time to work is obtained by dividing the total number of minutes by the number of workers 16 years old and over who did not work at home. Mean travel time to work is rounded to the nearest tenth of a minute. For the complete definition, go to ACS subject definitions "Travel Time to Work."
Source and Accuracy
This Fact is based on data collected in the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) conducted annually by the U.S. Census Bureau. A sample of over 3.5 million housing unit addresses is interviewed each year over a 12 month period. This Fact (estimate) is based on five years of ACS and PRCS sample data and describes the average value of person, household and housing unit characteristics over this period of collection.
Statistics from all surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error. Sampling error is the uncertainty between an estimate based on a sample and the corresponding value that would be obtained if the estimate were based on the entire population (as from a census). Measures of sampling error are provided in the form of margins of error for all estimates included with ACS and PRCS published products. The Census Bureau recommends that data users incorporate this information into their analyses, as sampling error in survey estimates could impact the conclusions drawn from the results. The data for each geographic area are presented together with margins of error at Using margins of error. A more detailed explanation of margins of error and a demonstration of how to use them is provided below.
For more information on sampling and estimation methodology, confidentiality, and sampling and nonsampling errors, please see the Multiyear Accuracy (US) and the Multiyear Accuracy (Puerto Rico) documents at "Documentation - Accuracy of the data."
Margin of Error
As mentioned above, ACS estimates are based on a sample and are subject to sampling error. The margin of error measures the degree of uncertainty caused by sampling error. The margin of error is used with an ACS estimate to construct a confidence interval about the estimate. The interval is formed by adding the margin of error to the estimate (the upper bound) and subtracting the margin of error from the estimate (the lower bound). It is expected with 90 percent confidence that the interval will contain the full population value of the estimate. The following example is for demonstrating purposes only. Suppose the ACS reported that the percentage of people in a state who were 25 years and older with a bachelor's degree was 21.3 percent and that the margin of error associated with this estimate was 0.7 percent. By adding and subtracting the margin of error from the estimate, we calculate the 90-percent confidence interval for this estimate:
Therefore, we can be 90 percent confident that the percent of the population 25 years and older having a bachelor's degree in a state falls somewhere between 20.6 percent and 22.0 percent.
