Is traffic bad in your city? Well, you aren’t alone, according to the latest data from one transportation analytics company.
INRIX released its Global Traffic Scorecard on Dec. 2 and identified the top 25 U.S. cities with the worst traffic congestion.
The scorecard “reveals a world where congestion is climbing almost everywhere,” INRIX said in a news release alongside the list. The organization analyzed traffic data in 36 countries and nearly 1,000 cities.
Across the globe, 62% of urban areas experienced increased congestion in 2025, while 26% of urban areas saw improvements.
INRIX’s data showed that traffic costs drivers traveling in highly congested areas of the world hundreds of dollars on average each year, in comparison to remote workers and other drivers who commute during lighter traffic times.
The data firm said it calculates commute times by “looking exclusively at the time it takes to get to and from major employment centers within an urban area from surrounding commuting neighborhoods.” Additionally, data used to complete the 2025 scorecard spans from 2023 through Q3 of 2025, which ran from July 1 to Sept. 30, according to INRIX.
This year’s report found that the typical U.S. driver lost 49 hours to traffic congestion in 2025, which is a six-hour jump from 2024. Congestion, on average, resulted in $894 worth of time lost per driver, costing the country $85 billion, an increase of 11.3% from 2024.
To calculate the cost of time lost to traffic congestion, INRIX uses an economic analysis that estimates the “total cost to the average driver in a city, and a total cost to the city population,” the data firm said in a 2020 release.
The company came up with the economic costs based on hourly values of time, calculated by the U.S. Federal Highway Administration’s Revised Departmental Guidance on Valuation of Travel Time for Economic, which adjusted for inflation is $18.42 per hour.
INRIX’s scorecard states drivers lost 4.7 billion hours to traffic this year, which is equal to about 2.2 million full-time jobs at 2,080 hours per job per year, when compared to remote workers and those who drive during lighter traffic hours.
Chicago dealt with the worst congestion, losing drivers 112 hours and costing them an average of $2,063 in lost time. The city suffered a loss of $7.5 billion, according to the data.
New York and Philadelphia ranked as the second and third-top cities for traffic congestion, the data shows. New York was the top city in 2024, but Chicago overtook the Big Apple as citywide delays increased by 10% year over year. Delays in the New York metro area remained unchanged.
Baltimore and Philadelphia saw the largest percentage increase, with 31% over the last year. Philadelphia came in third nationwide, while Baltimore came in 13th.
Here are the 25 cities that suffered the most amount of congestion, in order.
According to INRIX’s Global Traffic Scorecard, here are the top 25 U.S. cities with the worst traffic:
Michelle Del Rey is a trending news reporter at USA TODAY. Reach her at mdelrey@usatoday.com