On average, ACT residents commute 11.75 kilometres to work, compared to just over 15 kilometres for people living in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.

The figures were based on the commuting habits of almost 200,000 Canberra residents, which were detailed in the 2016 census.

The bureau's director of census dissemination, Phillip Wise, said Canberra's small commuting times were due to its small area compared with other states and territories.

"Australia's largest capital cities had longer commuting distances than the smaller capitals," he said.

"Workers outside the state capital cities generally had longer average commutes when compared to their corresponding cities."

Men in the ACT have to commute slightly further for work, with males travelling on average 12.3 kilometres compared to 11.2 for women.

The Canberra figures were similar to the national trend, where males would travel 17.7 kilometres while women averaged 14.2 kilometres for their journey.

While the ACT's public transport network is set to expand with the inclusion of light rail, cars are still king when it comes to the daily commute.

More than 70 per cent of Canberrans drive to work, while almost as many people catch the bus as using active transport, such as riding a bike or walking to work, with both modes of transport registering 7 per cent.

The data also revealed which suburbs were the major hubs for Canberra commuters, with Civic coming out on top with more than 34,000 commuters travelling to the suburb.

Workers in Civic largely came from inner north suburbs such as Braddon, Turner and Watson, while parts of Gungahlin along with Queanbeyan made up the most common commutes to the area.

The more than 11,500 public servants who commute to Barton are largely made up of residents from the inner south, with Kingston being the largest contributor with 471 commuters, while Gungahlin suburbs were also well represented.

Data shows that people travelling to Belconnen for work generally don't stray too far from home, with six of the top 10 suburbs in terms of commuter numbers from the Belconnen area.

A similar trend can be seen in Greenway, with all the top 10 list made up of Tuggeranong suburbs, with more than 10,000 commuting into the area for work.

While the industrial hub of Mitchell sees a majority of its commuters come from the Gungahlin area, the suburb also sees a large portion of its workers travel from Yass and its surrounding areas.

The ABS data also shows an estimated 29,000 Canberra commuters travel to work from outside the ACT.