New Mexico is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It borders Utah, Colorado, Texas and Arizona, as well as a part of Mexico to the south.

New Mexico became a state very late, in 1912. Before that, it was home to Native Americans and it was a Spanish colony. After this, it was a part of independent Mexico, but became a part of the US after the Mexican-American War. This is the reason why New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic population of all states. Likewise, its culture is a mix of Native American, Spanish, Mexican and American cultures.

The capital of New Mexico is Santa Fe, while the largest city is Albuquerque, which has 560,000 residents. With over 2 million residents, New Mexico is the 36th most populous state. It is also the fifth largest state by area and the sixth least densely populated of all states.

The violent crime level is very high in New Mexico, which can be concluded from two facts. The first one is that this crime increased by 6.9% in the period from 2015 to 2016, which is 6.7% per 100,000 people. The other proof is that crime score in the safest places in New Mexico is much higher than in most states, which you can read in the table below.

 

Ranking Criteria

Elite Personal Finance extracted data from the FBI crime statistics in the United States in 2016. We took violent crime as the main criteria. To get our score, we used this formula:

Crime Score = ( Total Number of Violent Crimes / Population ) * 1,000

This way, cities that are the safest got the lowest score and those that are more vulnerable to crime got higher scores.

The cities that did not report crimes to the FBI were not included in the list, as well as cities with population under 3,000.

 

20 Safest Places in New Mexico 2017

Rank	City	Population	Total Number of Crimes	Crime Score
1	Corrales	8,530	7	0.82
2	Los Alamos	17,667	18	1.02
3	Edgewood	3,819	5	1.31
4	Sunland Park	16,301	24	1.47
5	Lovington	11,970	18	1.50
6	Eunice	3,182	6	1.89
7	Raton	6,058	13	2.15
8	Rio Rancho	95,454	215	2.25
9	Las Cruces	102,349	251	2.45
10	Ruidoso	7,683	21	2.73
11	Truth or Consequences	6,000	22	3.67
12	Alamogordo	30,768	115	3.74
13	Santa Fe	84,663	324	3.83
14	Portales	11,921	50	4.19
15	Grants	9,245	39	4.22
16	Carlsbad	29,538	133	4.50
17	Bosque Farms	3,823	20	5.23
18	Bloomfield	7,163	40	5.58
19	Clovis	39,725	223	5.61
20	Hobbs	39,349	221	5.62

 

 

Crime Score in All Cities in New Mexico

Rank	City	Population	Total Number of Crimes	Crime Score
1	Questa	1,750	0	0.00
2	Dexter	1,273	0	0.00
3	Hurley	1,249	0	0.00
4	Texico	1,114	0	0.00
5	Carrizozo	931	0	0.00
6	Cloudcroft	683	0	0.00
7	Hope	107	0	0.00
8	Estancia	1,586	1	0.63
9	Santa Clara	1,629	2	1.23
10	Clayton	2,735	4	1.46
11	Mesilla	1,869	3	1.61
12	Moriarty	1,786	3	1.68
13	Jal	2,234	4	1.79
14	Logan	951	2	2.10
15	Springer	924	2	2.16
16	Tularosa	2,863	9	3.14
17	Santa Rosa	2,641	11	4.17
18	San Ysidro	195	1	5.13
19	Hatch	1,596	10	6.27
20	Angel Fire	1,104	7	6.34
21	Magdalena	906	6	6.62
22	Lordsburg	2,485	17	6.84
23	Capitan	1,373	11	8.01
24	Ruidoso Downs	2,548	30	11.77
25	Cuba	736	22	29.89

 

3,000 – 10,000 Residents

Rank	City	Population	Total Number of Crimes	Crime Score
1	Corrales	8,530	7	0.82
2	Edgewood	3,819	5	1.31
3	Eunice	3,182	6	1.89
4	Raton	6,058	13	2.15
5	Ruidoso	7,683	21	2.73
6	Truth or Consequences	6,000	22	3.67
7	Grants	9,245	39	4.22
8	Bosque Farms	3,823	20	5.23
9	Bloomfield	7,163	40	5.58
10	Aztec	6,031	35	5.80
11	Milan	3,248	22	6.77
12	Socorro	8,665	64	7.39
13	Bernalillo	8,946	86	9.61
14	Taos	5,746	57	9.92
15	Belen	7,127	122	17.12

 

10,000 – 30,000 Residents

Rank	City	Population	Total Number of Crimes	Crime Score
1	Los Alamos	17,667	18	1.02
2	Sunland Park	16,301	24	1.47
3	Lovington	11,970	18	1.50
4	Portales	11,921	50	4.19
5	Carlsbad	29,538	133	4.50
6	Deming	14,457	87	6.02
7	Los Lunas	15,398	129	8.38
8	Las Vegas	13,256	117	8.83
9	Artesia	12,180	109	8.95
10	Gallup	23,528	406	17.26
11	Espanola	10,030	268	26.72

 

Over 30,000 Residents

Rank	City	Population	Total Number of Crimes	Crime Score
1	Rio Rancho	95,454	215	2.25
2	Las Cruces	102,349	251	2.45
3	Alamogordo	30,768	115	3.74
4	Santa Fe	84,663	324	3.83
5	Clovis	39,725	223	5.61
6	Hobbs	39,349	221	5.62
7	Roswell	48,556	311	6.40
8	Farmington	42,270	293	6.93
9	Albuquerque	561,560	6,245	11.12

 

 

How safe do you feel?

Is your city safe enough? Are you worried because of crime rate in your town? Do you have any thoughts on safety levels in the country?

If you want to share anything, feel free to leave a comment. That way, you can help us understand your perspective better.

Thank you!

 

Archives

• Safest Places to Live in New Mexico 2016
• Safest Places to Live in New Mexico 2015

 

Sources:

• Crime in the US 2016
• Population and Housing Unit Estimates
  
• United States Census 2010
  
• Wikipedia