Romanian employees’ short commuting distances come with long travel times, study finds

Employees in Romania travel an average of only 17 kilometres to and from work each day, the shortest distance among the 16 European countries included in an SD Worx survey. Despite this, their daily commute lasts almost 53 minutes, placing Romania sixth in the ranking for average travel time.

The time spent commuting also exceeds the 51-minute maximum that Romanian employees say they are willing to accept. Across Europe, workers travel an average of 45 kilometres, while the average acceptable commuting time is 62 minutes.

Some 63% of Romanian respondents reported a daily round-trip commute of between 10 and 29 kilometres, compared with a European average of 27%. However, only 47% complete the journey in under 45 minutes.

At the other end of the scale, 16% of Romanian employees spend at least 90 minutes commuting each day, above the European average of 13%, while 11% spend two hours or more on the road.

The disparity is widest in the Bucharest-Ilfov region, where employees commute for an average of 73 minutes despite travelling only 16 kilometres. In Romania’s other seven development regions, the average commute ranges from 43 to 49 minutes.

More than half of respondents in Bucharest-Ilfov spend at least one hour travelling to and from work each day, while 33% commute for at least 90 minutes and 23% for two hours or more. The regional average also exceeds by nearly ten minutes the maximum commuting time of 63 minutes that local employees consider acceptable.

The results do not indicate a general rejection of office work. Some 48% of Romanian respondents would like to work remotely as often as they currently do, while 38.2% would prefer more remote work and 13.7% would like less.

In Bucharest-Ilfov, 47% would prefer to work from home more often. Meanwhile, 43% believe commuting takes up valuable time that they could otherwise use for work, compared with 35% nationwide.

“Companies cannot control traffic, but they can reduce the time cost through flexibility, adjusted start times, clear hybrid policies, and better alignment between office presence and the activities that genuinely benefit from face-to-face collaboration,” said Ciprian Chiorean, managing director of SD Worx Romania.

Despite the long journeys, 61% of Romanian respondents believe they have enough transport options for reaching their workplace, the second-highest share in the survey after the Netherlands. Romania also ranked first for positive perceptions of public transport, with 52% describing it as convenient, reliable, and easily accessible.

The survey was conducted between January 27 and February 20, 2026, among 16,500 employees and 5,936 HR decision-makers in 16 European countries. Its national results are representative of each country’s labor market, while Romania’s regional breakdowns are descriptive due to differences in subsample sizes.