Which cities have seen the biggest increases in commute times?
The number of Canadians commuting to work increased for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, according to Statistics Canada (StatCan).
Specifically, the proportion of employed people who usually work most of their hours outside their home rose to 82.6% in May 2025, up 1.3 percentage points from May 2024.
This came as the share of employed people mostly working from home declined to 17.4% in May 2025 from 18.7% in May 2024.
This number dropped to 71.5% in 2021, in the context of widespread public health measures implemented to limit the spread of COVID-19, according to the report.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, commuting patterns in Canada have shifted,” says StatCan. “Some commuters usually work exclusively outside their home, while others primarily work on-site but spend part of their work hours at home. Employed people who usually work most of their hours at home are not included in the counts of commuters.”
Meanwhile, in May 2025, 5.1% of workers were commuters who usually worked some hours from home, up slightly from May 2024 (4.8%) and marking the third consecutive increase since May 2022 (2.6%). Commuters who usually work exclusively outside their home made up more than three in four workers (77.6%) in May 2025, a proportion that increased for the third straight year.
The number of Canadians who are working from home most of the time has been dropping over the past few quarters, according to a previous StatCan report.
As organisations continue to implement return-to-office (RTO) mandates, most workers are looking for financial support from their employers to make it happen, according to a previous report.
How do your workers get to work?
Active transportation, such as walking or cycling, was the main mode of commuting for 6.2% of workers in May 2025, according to StatCan.
These sustainable commuting options were most common in Canada’s largest cities, with Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver all reporting nearly 30% of commuters using public or active transit. Victoria also stood out, with 15% of commuters either walking or cycling to work.
Regional differences were also noted. The Ottawa–Gatineau region saw the largest increase in the proportion of commuters among Canada’s 15 largest census metropolitan areas, rising 9.5 percentage points to 76.0% between May 2024 and May 2025. Despite this increase, Ottawa–Gatineau and Toronto continued to have the lowest proportions of commuters among major Canadian cities.
Long commute times
Commute times remain a concern. The average commute in May 2025 was 26.7 minutes, little changed from the previous year. Toronto had the longest average commute at 34.9 minutes, up 1.6 minutes from a year earlier. Public transit commuters faced the longest journeys, averaging 44.1 minutes, compared to 24.7 minutes for car commuters and 15.0 minutes for those walking or cycling.
StatCan also reported disparities in commute times among racialized populations. South Asian, Black, and Chinese workers had longer average commutes than non-racialized, non-Indigenous workers. Racialized groups were also more likely to have long commutes of 60 minutes or more and to rely on public transit for their daily travel.
Overall, workers save 72 minutes daily when working from home, according to a previous National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) report. In Canada, workers save 65 minutes, and they spend 41% of that time for work.
