U.S. County-County Commuting Flows

This page provides bilateral county-level commuting flow data from two sources.  The first, the US Census’ Journey to Work estimates, provides flows for 1970, 1980, 1990, and 2000.  The second, the American Community Survey, provides flows for 2006-2010, 2009-2013, 2011-2015, and 2016-2020.

1. US Census’ Journey to Work estimates. Estimates for 2000 include bilateral commuting by industry available, along with average wage. 
   
   Cleaned data provided by Stephen J. Redding and Nathaniel Baum-Snow and used in:
    
   1. Redding, Stephen (2022) “Suburbanization in the United States 1970-2000,” Economica, 100th Anniversary Special Issue, 89, S110-S136. 
   2. Monte, Ferdinando, Stephen J. Redding and Esteban Rossi-Hansberg (2018) "Commuting, Migration and Local Employment Elasticities," American Economic Review, 108(12), 3855-3890.
       

       Data: 1970 to 2000

2. Commuting flows from the American Community Survey.