The share of supercommuters — people who travel more than 90 minutes to get to work — is rising across the nation, but it may be rising fastest in California.
The bottom half of the state is spending the longest time on the road. A new study analyzing U.S. Census data, released by Apartment List, found that Southern California had more than 300,000 supercommuters in 2022 — more than any other region in the country. In recent years, as residents have moved to outlying towns surrounding Los Angeles seeking more-affordable housing, commutes have shot up in tandem.
Palmdale ranked as the No. 1 supercommuting town in the U.S., with 16.9% of residents making the long trek on a regular basis. Hesperia and Apple Valley, two midsize San Bernardino County towns northeast of Los Angeles, also ranked high on the list, coming in at No. 3 (with 14.6% of residents supercommuting) and No. 5 (with 13.2% of residents supercommuting) respectively.
Victorville, known for its booming population, also ranked in the top 10, with 11.8% of people supercommuting. Lake Elsinore, Hemet, Temecula and Lancaster — all towns surrounding the L.A. metro — also came in in the top 20.
Many California towns more than doubled the national average of 2.7% of residents who supercommute. The San Francisco Bay Area came in just above this average, with 3% of all commuters making a supercommute. But many surrounding counties had a much higher proportion of supercommuters — people who are driving from well outside the Bay Area’s nine counties to the SF metro area. These included Lake (10%), San Joaquin (10%) and Stanislaus (8%) counties.
A 2023 study from the University of Southern California and other researchers found that supercommuting has been on the rise across the state of California, especially in the Central Valley, with Merced, Solano, Stanislaus, El Dorado and San Joaquin counties having the highest share of supercommuters. The growth is likely to continue as high-wage earners with jobs centered in the coastal metros seek larger homes inland.
The number of supercommuters still remains lower than it was historically, however. The population of supercommuters in the Bay Area grew by 112.7% between 2005 and 2016, according to a previous Apartment List study of census data.
