The median commute is 7.8 km one way
Insee Première no. 1948 (25 May 2023) draws on the 2019 census. For all employed people living and working in metropolitan France, the median distance between home and work is 7.8 km: half of workers travel less, half travel more. The same figure was 5.5 km in 1999 and 6.7 km in 2008. Insee counts one-way road distances for trips under 150 km, and it does not measure teleworking.
City and countryside are far apart
In dense urban areas the median is 5.4 km, in intermediate urban areas 7.5 km, and across all urban areas 6.1 km. Rural residents have a median of 12.5 km. It is higher still near large employment centres: for rural residents of the areas around Paris, Insee gives 22 km. A national median of 7.8 km therefore describes no one in particular.
The mean is higher
The Ministry's sustainable mobility dashboard (version dated 4 November 2026) states that employed people in metropolitan France travelled 13.7 km on average to get to work in 2022. Long trips pull a mean up and leave a median untouched, so the two figures answer different questions. They also come from different years and perimeters (the dashboard leaves out trips above 100 km for most modes). That is why this article does not subtract one from the other.
From distance to round trip
At the median, 7.8 km one way makes 15.6 km there and back. At the mean, 13.7 km one way makes 27.4 km. Advertised range is measured under set conditions, as our guide to advertised range explains. As an example, Xiaomi gives 25 km for the Electric Scooter 6 Lite at a constant 15 km/h, with a 75 kg load, on a closed road with a slope of up to 5 % (see the model article). If you carry the vehicle up stairs, weight matters too, and our weight guide covers it. Our comparison lists weight, advertised range and price side by side.
What the figures leave out
They date from 2019 and 2022. Insee states that its study cannot measure the effects of the health crisis and of the growth of teleworking. Distances are calculated between town centres, so an actual route can be shorter or longer.
