What is the proportion of persons in employment commuting for more than 30 minutes to work?
The indicator shows the share of employed aged 15 years and older who need more than 30 minutes one way from home to their workplace.
The faster the distance to work is covered, the more time is left for leisure activities, family or friends. Therefore the time needed to commute to work is an important indicator of the balance between job and private life.
Two thirds need less than 30 minutes to get to work
In 2016, 69.7% of the persons in employment commuted to work in less than 30 minutes. Just over a fifth (22.1%) needed more than 30 minutes to get to work but commuted for less than an hour. For just 4.8% the commuting times were more than an hour.
The proportion of those commuting for more than an hour to work remained nearly constant since 1991. However, the share of those who take it upon themselves to commute for 30 to 60 minutes was up by about four percentage points since 1991.
Women with shorter commuting times
Men needed longer to get to work than women. While 24.2% of women needed at least 30 minutes to get to their workplace, this was true for 29.5% of men.
Self-employed have shorter distances
Self-employed persons had shorter distances to their place of work. While 28.1% of the employees had commuting times of more than 30 minutes, this applied to just 13.2% of the self-employed with staff. One in two self-employed persons with staff (43.4%) needed less than ten minutes. This applied only to one in five employees.
| Commuting time | Total |
|---|---|
| Source: Microcensus results | |
| Full-time employees | |
| Less than 10 minutes | 19.2 |
| 10 to less than 30 minutes | 47.1 |
| 30 to less than 60 minutes | 24.4 |
| 1 hour and more | 5.6 |
| Regularly changing place of work | 3.7 |
| Part-time employees | |
| Less than 10 minutes | 29.8 |
| 10 to less than 30 minutes | 48.5 |
| 30 to less than 60 minutes | 16.4 |
| 1 hour and more | 2.9 |
| Regularly changing place of work | 2.4 |
Part-time employed have short distances to work
29.8% of the part-time employed needed below ten minutes to get to work, whereas only 19.2% of the full-time employed had such a short distance. While 24.4% of the full-time employed need 30 minutes to one hour to reach their workplace, this was true for only 16.4% of the part-time employed. Most employed (nearly 50%), no matter if part-time or full-time employed needed 10 to 30 minutes for their one way to work.
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Proportion of persons in employment who need more than 30 minutes one way to get to work in all persons in employment who provided valid data on their commuting time.
Source
Microcensus
Information for interpretation
Self-employed persons work at home more often and, consequently, have shorter commuting times than employees. Therefore these groups should be examined separately.
In the last few years, the methodology of the microcensus has been continuously improved in terms of employment status coverage. Therefore comparisons over time are partly limited. Methodological changes affecting the results were performed especially in 2005 and, more currently, for the years from 2011. Consequently, the results for those years can be compared with the results for previous years to a limited extent only.
In the context of the current changes, the extrapolation of microcensus data uses the population figures from the 2011 Census, which was conducted as at 9 May 2011. The results have been revised from 2010 onwards. With effect from the year 2016, the sample is based on the 2011 census data. This transition affects the comparability of the results with previous years.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).