Santa Fe, the state capital · Photo: Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK · CC BY 2.0How New Mexico stacks up
No state scores lower on the Nation’s Report Card than New Mexico: 19% of its 4th and 8th graders score Proficient or better. It trails all of its neighbors on safety, health and growth. The overall grade: D, a score of 12 that ranks 45th.
Each subject puts the official state figure beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
49th of 51D−4/100 Among the states with the most reported crime. Top-quarter towns are rare here; Sunland Park comes closest at #1,491. Violent crime runs at 648 per 100,000 residents, about twice the national figure (3rd highest among the states). Every neighbor scores higher, Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma among them.
Counting property crime too (property + 4 × violent, the weighting our town grades use): 2nd highest.
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, state estimate 2025.
Measure: reported crime per resident over the engine’s three crime years (property + 4 × violent), as in our Safety grades. 15 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 3,410 nationally. Covers 88% of residents of New Mexico’s 10,000+ towns.
Crime gathers in the larger cities
Its safest larger towns are Rio Rancho (#1,993), Artesia (#2,651) and Alamogordo (#2,742), ranked against every U.S. town of 10,000+. At the other end are Albuquerque, Las Cruces and Santa Fe, in the quarter of U.S. towns reporting the most crime per resident. Of residents of its 10,000+ towns, 0% live in the safest quarter nationally and 89% in the quarter reporting the most crime.
| State | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | 42% | 0% | |
| Rhode Island | 37% | 0% | |
| New Jersey | 35% | 20% | |
| Pennsylvania | 29% | 37% | |
| Maine | 29% | 15% | |
| New Mexico | 0% | 89% |
Places without a police force of their own
Each town’s figure is built from its own department’s FBI reports, so towns with gaps sit out rather than being estimated. Here the towns counted hold 88% of residents of towns of 10,000+. Clovis, Los Alamos, Lovington and one more are missing too many years to count. In South Valley, Chaparral, Deming and one other places, county or state police answer the calls, so there is no town figure. Next door, coverage runs from 81% in Utah to 100% in Oklahoma.
Schools
48th of 51D6/100 Schools are a real weak spot. At $17,681 a pupil (20th), its 51st-place results lag what that money buys elsewhere. New Mexico ranks last in the country on this measure: 19% of its 4th and 8th graders score Proficient or better. Top-quarter towns are rare here; Los Alamos comes closest at #683.
Graduation: 76.5% finish high school on time (class of 2023), 2nd lowest. The grade weighs test results and graduation equally.
Per-pupil spending, $17,681 (20th highest), is shown for context and not graded.
Source: NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024, public schools; EDFacts graduation rates; Census school finance.
Measure: graduation rate and test results, averaged; each district’s state-test proficiency is put on the NAEP yardstick (its result ÷ the state average × the state’s NAEP proficiency) so districts compare across states. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,230 nationally.
Cost of living
15th of 51B+72/100 Affordable with few exceptions. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Los Alamos its best at #21 of 5,235. The typical homeowner pays $1,731 a year in property tax, about half the national figure.
A typical home costs 3.9 years of median household income, 25th lowest.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: our cost-of-living score: home value, rent and tax bill against area income, plus the share paying 30%+ for housing. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Health
48th of 51D6/100 Among the least healthy states. Compared with 19% nationally, 24% of adults here report fair or poor health. Los Alamos is the exception, #128 nationally; almost no one else lives in a top-quarter town. It trails all of its neighbors on health.
Source: CDC PLACES 2025 release (BRFSS model estimates).
Measure: our health score: seven CDC PLACES measures (general, physical and mental health, obesity, diabetes, smoking, inactivity). 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,218 nationally.
Housing
18th of 51B+66/100 Slightly more owners than average. Home ownership stands at 70%, the 15th highest rate of the 50 states and D.C. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Rio Rancho ranks highest, at #971.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: share of occupied homes that are owner-occupied. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Natural hazards
26th of 51B−50/100 Typical natural-hazard risk. FEMA puts 78% of the expected losses on inland flooding. New Mexico ranks 17th highest for expected hazard damage: $159 a year per $100,000 of buildings. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Rio Rancho its best at #755 of 5,239.
The federal government declared four major disasters here between 2015 and 2025 (6th fewest).
What drives it: inland flooding 78%, wildfire 14%, earthquake 6% of expected building damage.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index v1.20 (Dec. 2025): expected annual building loss over building value, all census tracts; FEMA disaster declarations.
Measure: FEMA National Risk Index: expected yearly building loss from 18 natural hazards, as a share of building value. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,239 nationally.
Commute
18th of 51B+66/100 Slightly shorter commutes than average. Workers spend 23.5 minutes getting to work, the 17th shortest commute among the states. Rio Rancho is the exception, with commutes in the slowest quarter of U.S. towns. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Portales its best at #26 of 5,235.
Source: Census ACS 2020–24 5-year.
Measure: average one-way commute of the town’s workers. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,235 nationally.
Growth
28th of 51B−46/100 Average growth. New Mexico grew 2.8% between 2010 and 2020, against 7.4% for the country. Every neighbor scores higher, Arizona, Colorado and Oklahoma among them. Town by town it lands near the middle, with Santa Fe its best at #485 of 5,079.
New homes permitted in 2025: 5.2 per 1,000 residents (22nd most).
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 and 2020 decennial counts; Census building permits.
Measure: population change between the 2010 and 2020 censuses. 23 New Mexico towns of 10,000+ against 5,079 nationally.
How New Mexico compares to its neighbors
Each of its neighbors (Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah) does better on safety, health and growth.
| New Mexico | Arizona | Colorado | Oklahoma | Texas | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | D 1245th of 51 | C− 1842nd of 51 | B− 5424th of 51 | D 1444th of 51 | C 2638th of 51 |
| Safety | D− 449th official · 0% in top towns | C 3036th official · 3% in top towns | C 2644th official · 6% in top towns | C− 2039th official · 3% in top towns | B− 5231st official · 7% in top towns |
| Schools | D 651st official · 1% in top towns | D 1040th official · 2% in top towns | B− 525th official · 7% in top towns | D− 350th official · 0% in top towns | B+ 7034th official · 15% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B+ 7211th official · 21% in top towns | B− 5014th official · 6% in top towns | C 3023rd official · 1% in top towns | A− 829th official · 29% in top towns | C− 2440th official · 4% in top towns |
| Health | D 647th official · 1% in top towns | B− 5434th official · 24% in top towns | A+ 964th official · 59% in top towns | D 1440th official · 4% in top towns | C 2841st official · 15% in top towns |
| Housing | B+ 6615th official · 10% in top towns | B 6225th official · 18% in top towns | C+ 4237th official · 10% in top towns | D 1238th official · 1% in top towns | D 1446th official · 7% in top towns |
| Natural hazards | B− 5035th official · 20% in top towns | C− 2438th official · 1% in top towns | B− 5228th official · 11% in top towns | C− 2237th official · <1% in top towns | B− 5423rd official · 10% in top towns |
| Commute | B+ 6617th official · 35% in top towns | C 3427th official · 11% in top towns | C+ 4026th official · 13% in top towns | A− 7612th official · 41% in top towns | C 2640th official · 16% in top towns |
| Growth | B− 4639th official · 34% in top towns | B+ 7210th official · 39% in top towns | A+ 966th official · 70% in top towns | B 6427th official · 52% in top towns | A− 843rd official · 40% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the state’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of residents of 10,000+ towns living in a nationally top-quarter town. Neighbor names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is the figure a state agency or federal survey publishes for the whole state, ranked against the other 49 states and D.C. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the state’s towns and cities of 10,000+, the share whose town falls in the national top quarter of 10,000+ towns. A state can do well on one and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the state’s standing among the 50 states and D.C.: the two measures’ percentiles averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. 100 is the best state, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, commute 10, housing 8, natural hazards 8, growth 8 (out of 100). D.C., a single city, is left out of the town measure and graded on official figures alone.
What it is not. A state figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a state is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out towns under 10,000 and towns missing data. Neither says anything about any one neighborhood.
Schools use the Nation’s Report Card because each state’s own tests are set to different bars. Hazards use FEMA’s expected building damage, the same loss rate behind our town hazard grades. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work