New Mexico

New Mexico by the Numbers:
Key Statistical Data and Facts

Key Details

• New Mexico is the 36th most populous state in the US, with 2.1 million residents as of 2022.
• The median household income in the state is $54,020 as of 2021, and the median monthly mortgage cost for homeowners is $1359.
• As of 2023, 28.5% of persons over 25 years have a bachelor's degree or higher, and 86.8% have a high school diploma or higher.
• Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) serves as the 32nd governor of the state
• The average life expectancy at birth in New Mexico is 74.5 years; 43rd highest in the US including DC and lower than the US average by 5.5%.
• In 2019, New Mexico recorded an incarceration rate of 429 per 100,000 people; lower than the national rate of 556 per 100,000.

New Mexico Population Demographics

Located in Southwestern U.S., New Mexico has the fifth largest landmass in the United States. It's bordered by multiple US states, including Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arizona. As of 2022, New Mexico has a population of 2,116,277 people, making it the 36th most populous state.

Residents aged five years and under constitute 5.4% of the population, while residents under 18 years and 65 years and over make up 22.4% and 18.5%, respectively. Female and male composition is almost evenly split in New Mexico at 50.2% to 49.8%, respectively.

New Mexico Racial Demographics

Note: White Americans include residents who indicate white as their race in their response to the census questionnaires. This includes people of European, Middle East, and North African descent.

New Mexico Housing

According to the US Census

948,110 housing

New Mexico has approximately 948,110 housing units, according to 2022 census estimates.

68%

Between 2017 and 2021, 68% of the units were owner-occupied, with an average of 2.59 persons per household. 87.4% of these inhabitants lived in the same house for more than a year during the same period.

$184,800

Owner-occupied housing units had a median property value of $184,800,

$1,359

the median monthly mortgage cost for homeowners was $1,359

$54,020

In 2021, the median household income in New Mexico was $54,020.

Elections in New Mexico

New Mexico had seven governors between 1983 and 2022, with the governorship alternating from the Republican party to the Democratic party. The total number of elections for the governor's seat in this period was eleven, with five Republican and six Democratic victories.

These elections produced four Democratic governors and three Republican governors, including Toney Anaya (1983 -1987), Garrey Carruthers (1987 -1991), Bruce King (1991 - 1995), Garry Johnson (1995 - 2003), Bill Richarson (2003 - 2011), and Susanna Martinez (2011 - 2019). The Republicans were Garrey Carruthers, Garry Johnson, and Susanna Martinez.

Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) came into office in 2019 as the 32nd governor defeating Republican Steve Pearce. Michelle Lujan Grisham was the first Latina elected as Democratic governor in New Mexico. She replaced Susanna Martinez, who was the first female and first Latina Governor of New Mexico. Lujan Grisham was re-elected in 2022 after defeating Republican Mark Ronchetti.

As of 2023, New Mexico was represented by two Democratic Party senators, Martin Heinrich, who was elected in 2012 and reelected in 2018, and Ben Ray Luján, in 2020. Since New Mexico was granted statehood in 1912, 18 senators were appointed or elected (between 1917 and 2021) to represent New Mexico in the U.S. Senate. Of the eight senators elected between 1949 and 2021, six have been from the Democratic Party, and only two were Republicans.

2020 Presidential Election

During the 2020 presidential elections, Donald Trump (R), lost the elections in New Mexico to Joe Biden (D) by 401,894 (43.5%) to 501,614 (54.3%). This was the fourth straight presidential election in New Mexico, where residents gave more votes to the Democratic Party candidate. As of 2023, the Democratic Party candidate has won seven of the eight presidential elections since 1992.

Joe Biden

Donald Trump

New Mexico Voting Statistics

New Mexico recorded a 52.4% voter turnout during the November 2022 general elections, with 714,754 cast votes. The state had 1,364,559 registered voters. 611,400 registered as Democrats (44%), 432,389 as Republicans (31%), and 14,013 as Libertarians (1%). The 2022 general elections represented a dip in the numbers from the 2020 general elections.

General Election

How Educated Is New Mexico

As of 2023, New Mexico ranks the fifth lowest of the fifty states in the U.S. for high school diplomas. According to census data from 2017 to 2021, 28.5% of persons over 25 years in New Mexico have a bachelor's degree or higher. In New Mexico, 86.8% of persons over 25 had a high school diploma or higher.

New Mexico had 29 colleges and universities as of 2023, including four-year colleges and universities, two-year community colleges, two-year branch campuses, and tribal colleges. The New Mexico State College is the oldest, while the largest is the University of New Mexico-Main Campus, with over 22,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Total degrees awarded by state-based institutions in 2020 include 6,332 undergraduate certificates, 7,391 associate degrees, 7,563 bachelor, and 2,670 master's degrees.

Between 2011 and 2020, New Mexico recorded a 27.9% average increase in degrees awarded across institutions in the state. Graduate certificates increased in this period by 223%, associate degrees by 39.8%, and undergraduate certificates increased by an average of 71%.

Of the 27,285 post-secondary degrees awarded in New Mexico in 2022, 48.3% of receivers were Hispanic, 31.6% were white, 7.1% were American Indian, and 2.6% were black or African American.

New Mexico Employment Rate

As of March 2023, the unemployment rate in New Mexico was 3.5%. Historically, New Mexico is a ranching and mining state, and its largest industries include oil and gas, mining, defense and aerospace, transportation and logistics, food, and tourism.

New Mexico had 43,953 establishments employing 606,085 people as of 2021. This figure was a 7% reduction in total employed persons from 2020. As of March 2023, there were 866,100 employed persons in New Mexico. 

The government was the top employer, with 184,300 persons. Second was the education and health services sector (145,700), beating trade transport and utilities to third (142,100). These were followed respectively by professional and business services (120,100), leisure and hospitality (97,300), and construction (50,400). The sector with the lowest employment figures is information employing 11,000 persons. 

The highest gains in employment in a sector over twelve months was the education and health services industry, with a 3.9% increase. Trade, transport and utilities, and financial activities had the highest percentage (1.1%) loss of jobs over the twelve months ending in March 2023. 

Average Income in New Mexico

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2022 shows that the estimated median household income in New Mexico was just over $54,000 for households with an average of 2.59 persons. The average weekly wage in New Mexico was $1.097 in the fourth quarter of 2021, which is lower than the national average of $1,418.  

Bernalillo County, the largest county in New Mexico, had an average weekly wage of $1,150, while Los Alamos County had the highest average of $2,019. Quay County in eastern New Mexico, with a population of 8,546 as of July 2022, had the lowest weekly average wage of $755. 

Families in New Mexico with one earner have a median income of $49,757 as of April 2022. Households with two and three earners in New Mexico had a median income of $60,728 and $66,183, respectively.  

Families in New Mexico

New Mexico Marriage Rates

New Mexico Divorce Rates

The divorce rate in New Mexico as of 2015 was 3.0 per 1000 persons, which was lower than the U.S. average reported by the CDC at that time of 3.1 per 1000. At 3.0 per 1000, this was the second lowest annual divorce rate in New Mexico in 20 years, down from its peak of 6.6 in 1995. The number of new divorces for women in New Mexico in 2020 for persons 15 years and over was 5,478 compared to 4,444 for men. As of 2021, men 15 years and over had a divorce rate of 5.2, while women in the same group had a rate of 6.3. 

Life Expectancy in New Mexico

As of 2021, the total life expectancy at birth in New Mexico is 74.5 years. This is lower than the U.S. average of 78.8 years by 5.5%. It is the 43rd highest in the U.S., including the District of Columbia. For males, life expectancy was 71.3 years, while it was higher for females by 6.5 years to give 77.8 years. The 6.5 years difference between male and female life expectancy in New Mexico is the third highest in the U.S., including D.C.

For life expectancy at age 65, New Mexico ranks 25th in the U.S. with 18.3 years. Life expectancy for males at 65 was 17 years, while for females, it was 2.5 years higher at 19.5 years.

New Mexico’s life expectancy for 2020 was a 2.4 years decrease from 2019. The leading causes of death in New Mexico are heart disease and cancer.

New Mexico Crime Rates

The yearly average crime rate for New Mexico is 2.38 per 1,000 residents. The number of crimes committed in New Mexico differs across the different parts of the state. There is a higher crime rate in the Northeastern part of Garden State than in the Northwestern region. In Northeastern New Mexico, your chances of falling victim to a crime victim in the neighborhoods is 1 in 27, while the figure drops to 1 in 94 in the Northwestern region.

Data from the FBI National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) showed 5,047 crime incidents (including 4,764 violent crimes) were reported by 226 law enforcement agencies that submitted reports from New Mexico (this data covered 48% of the population). The table below outlines some common violent crimes committed in New Mexico in 2021.

Data from the New Mexico Government shows the number of crimes reported in the state dropped from 186,904 in 2019 to 164,965. The graph shows the decline in the reported crime incidents in New Mexico between 2014 and 2020.

New Mexico Incarceration Rate

100,000 people

As of 2019, 429 per 100,000 people over 18 are incarcerated in New Mexico prisons. This is lower than the US rate of 556 per 100,000.

5,612 individuals

As of December 2021, there were 5,612 individuals confined in New Mexico prisons.

5,085 males and 527 females

Among these inmates, 5,085 were males (90.6%), and 527 were females (9.4%).

These figures have been on the decline in New Mexico since 2018. The age group for the largest concentration of male inmates is 30 - 34 years at 19%. For females, both the 30-34 and 35-39 age groups share the highest numbers of inmates at 22%.

New Mexico Bankruptcy Rate

2022

3,235 bankruptcy cases

Data from the United States Bankruptcy Court, District of New Mexico, shows that the total number of bankruptcies filed in New Mexico has decreased year on year since 2018. These totals include chapter 7, 11,12, and 13 bankruptcies. As of 2018, a total of 3,235 bankruptcies were filed, while 3,203 of these were closed.

The year 2022 shows a reduction in total bankruptcies filed (68%) with 1,036, while 1,264 cases were closed. The highest number of bankruptcy cases in 2022 was in Chapter 7, followed by Chapter 13 and 11, respectively. Chapter 12 had the lowest number filed, while there were no cases for Chapter 9. 

Weird Laws in New Mexico

New Mexico is a state with historic traditions and culture dating back to pre-statehood in the United States. It also has its fair share of weird laws, some of which include: