- Commuting costs vary from state to state depending on what adults spend on both gasoline and transportation services.
- Depending on the state, adults in the US can spend as low as $2,000 or as high as $5,000 annually on transportation.
- Additionally, different states have different percentages for workers who drive, use public transportation, and other means to get to work each day.
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Americans know that commuting is costly. Annual transportation spending in the United States costs workers thousands each year.
Depending on the state, adults in the US can spend as little as $2,000 or as much as $5,000 annually on transportation. Many of these states include metro areas that qualify for the best US cities to commute from — and some of the worst.
Read more: Here’s the town in every US state with the longest average commute to work
INSIDER’s data team pulled information from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis to calculate transportation spending from adults in all 50 states, plus Washington, DC. The numbers reflect how much Americans adults in each state spend on gas and other transportation services, which include motor vehicle maintenance and repair, motor vehicle rentals, taxicabs, other road transportation, water transportation, intercity buses, intra-city mass transit, and air travel. It’s also important to note that even within the same state, the cost of commuting can vary significantly from city to city.
Additionally, we cited statistics from the US Census Bureau, whose 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates show the mean travel time to work in every state. This most recent commuting data included the number of workers 16 years and older in each state, along with the percentage of this working population who drove alone, carpooled, used public transportation, walked to work, or worked from home.
Keep reading for a look at how much money people spent on commuting in each state, in order of least to greatest.
West Virginia: $2,003.81
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In West Virginia, transportation spending totaled just over $2,000 annually per adult. A workforce of 711,997 people spent 26 minutes commuting to and from work on average.
Drove alone: 82.8%
Carpooled: 9%
Public transportation (excluding taxicab): 0.9%
Walked: 2.9%
Other means: 1.1%
Worked from home: 3.3%
Mississippi: $2,141.44
Shutterstock
In Mississippi, transportation spending totaled over $2,100 annually. The state’s 1,214,929 people spent an average of 24.9 each day commuting to work.
Drove alone: 85.5%
Carpooled: 9.1%
Public transportation (excluding taxicab): 0.3%
Walked: 1.4%
Other means: 1.5%
Worked from home: 2.3%
Alabama: $2,178.20
Shutterstock/Andriy Blokhin
Alabama’s transportation spending totaled over $2,175 per year. The state’s 2,041,619 workers experienced travel times of 24.6 minutes per day.
Drove alone: 85.7%
Carpooled: 8.5%
Public transportation (excluding taxicab): 0.4%
Walked: 1.2%
Other means: 1%
Worked from home: 3.4%
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
See Also:
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- 14 ways to save money that are easier than you’d expect
- 6 signs you should sell your home, according to experts
NOW READ: The 50 worst commutes in America, ranked
Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Marissa Perino)