Bus ridership is the number of passenger boardings among the primary public transportation service providers in Wake County: Capital Area Transit (GoRaleigh), Cary Transit (GoCary), North Carolina State University Transportation (NCSU Wolfline), and Triangle Transit Authority (GoTriangle). Bus ridership measures the use of public transportation among citizens who use the service for financial reasons or personal preferences in Wake County, and indicates the adequacy of public transportation options in the community. Heavy use of public transportation has the ability to reduce highway wear, congestion, transportation costs, and exhaust emissions. Many factors impact bus ridership, including affordability, convenience of schedules, service reliability, route proximity to origins and destinations, vehicle conditions, and how efficiently the system links citizens to school, work, goods, and services. Note that because GoTriangle also provides service to Durham and Orange Counties, data provided by this indicator includes passenger boardings in Orange and Durham counties as well as in Wake.

Since 2006, bus ridership has increased more than 68% among all service providers in Wake County.  Note that GoCary did not report bus ridership to the National Transit Database.

GoTriangle's passenger boardings increased 20% from 2014 to 2015, making it the fastest growing service provider among those in Wake County region in 2015.

Data updated annually by Wake County Community Services, subject to data being available from the National Transit Database, American Public Transportation Association, and each service provider.

September 2017: Revised to reflect reported data for FY 2015