Census Bureau Reports 240,000 Workers Commute into King County, Wash., Each Day

WASHINGTON, March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- King County, Wash.,

has among the highest number of commuters coming from another county in the nation, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today in new estimates released from the American Community Survey. Nationally, 27.4 percent of workers commute outside the county where they live.

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Among workers in King County, 240,245 live outside the county, according to 2006-2010 estimates from the American Community Survey. For example, 116,232 workers commute in from Snohomish County, 84,697 from Pierce County and 12,123 from Kitsap County.

Meanwhile, 74,605 residents of King County leave the county for work, with 35,926 going to Snohomish County, 25,047 to Pierce County and 2,049 to Thurston County.

"It is well known that King County draws a lot of commuters to work. The detailed information in the American Community Survey tells us where King County workers are coming from, where its residents work, and how its commuting patterns compare to those of other large counties," said Brian McKenzie , a Census Bureau statistician who studies commuting. "This information shapes our understanding of the boundaries of local and regional economies, as people and goods move across the nation's transportation networks." 

The American Community Survey also provides annual estimates about how commuters in King County travel to work and how long it takes them to get there.

Means of Transportation

• In 2011, 67.0 percent of workers in King County drove to work alone, compared with 76.4 percent nationally.
• Meanwhile, 10.0 percent of King County workers carpooled in 2011, while 9.7 percent in the nation carpooled to work. The percentages were not significantly different from one another.
• In 2011, 10.3 percent of all workers in King County used public transportation — excluding taxicab — to get to their job, compared with 5.0 percent in the nation as a whole. The county's public transportation rate was not significantly different from the percent that carpooled.
• About 1.5 percent of all workers in the county biked to work in 2011, compared with 0.6 percent nationally.

Travel Time to Work

• In 2011, the average one-way commute to work for people living in King County was 26.5 minutes. The average commute nationally was 25.5 minutes.
• About 6.6 percent of all workers had a commute of 60 minutes or more in 2011, compared with 8.1 percent in the nation as a whole.

View more commuting statistics for King County online: http://factfinder2.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/11_1YR/S0801/0500000US53033

The American Community Survey provides a wide range of important statistics about people and housing for every community across the nation. The results are used by everyone from town and city planners to retailers and homebuilders. The survey is the only source of local estimates for most of the 40 topics it covers, such as education, occupation, language, ancestry and housing costs for even the smallest communities. Ever since Thomas Jefferson directed the first census in 1790, the census has collected detailed characteristics about our nation's people. Questions about jobs and the economy were added 20 years later under James Madison , who said such information would allow Congress to "adapt the public measures to the particular circumstances of the community," and over the decades, allow America "an opportunity of marking the progress of the society."

CB13-R.12
Press kit

Melanie Deal
Public Information Office
301-763-3030
e-mail: pio@census.gov

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau

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