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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-ALBUQUERQUE-NM · Albuquerque, NM 562,488 pop · income 44th pct · 176 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Albuquerque
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Albuquerque on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Roswell · lowest
50,294
Roswell · lowest
50,294 median HH income
58.6% of the leader · rank #1
Alliance · near
65,599
Alliance · near
65,599 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #2
Pleasanton · near
65,602
Pleasanton · near
65,602 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #3
Albuquerque · this city
65,604
Albuquerque · this city
65,604 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #4
Williamsburg · near
65,607
Williamsburg · near
65,607 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #5
Garrett · near
65,611
Garrett · near
65,611 median HH income
76.5% of the leader · rank #6
Rio Rancho · highest
85,755
Rio Rancho · highest
85,755 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Albuquerque on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 562,488.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Albuquerque - the verdict
Nationally, Albuquerque sits in the 44th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
44th
percentile, household income
59th
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
2nd
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Albuquerque, NM
562,488 people live in Albuquerque, New Mexico - a mid-sized U.S. city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Albuquerque households earn a median of $65,604 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.8%. Home values in Albuquerque run a median of $266,700, and the median resident age is 38.7 years. 38.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 60.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1,099 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Albuquerque's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 5810.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Albuquerque's yearly average temperature at 57.9°F with 8.8 inches of precipitation per year and 7.9 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in New Mexico run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New Mexico scores 92.2 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,129 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $167 across New Mexico, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Albuquerque report an average commute of 19.4 minutes, with 73.2% driving alone and 12.8% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 58.9 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Albuquerque's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households to work and mobility to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Albuquerque, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Albuquerque?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Las Cruces (112,612 residents, $55,176 income); Rio Rancho (106,533 residents, $85,755 income); Santa Fe (88,224 residents, $70,110 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Milwaukee, WI (569,756 residents); Baltimore, MD (577,193 residents); Fresno, CA (543,615 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Is Albuquerque growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -8,164 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1,099 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Albuquerque?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
What can 176 Census tracts reveal inside Albuquerque?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 176 Census tracts to this city.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Albuquerque?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 5810.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 155% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
4628.8
Violent rate
1181.8
Total reported rate
5810.5
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the education layer cover for Albuquerque?
The NCES join finds 195 public schools within the city match. 38.7% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
195
Bachelor's degree+
38.7%
Poverty estimate
11.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Albuquerque?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.4 minutes.
Public transit
1.3%
Work from home
12.8%
Drive alone
73.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 276,033 workers age 16+.
What physical conditions frame life in Albuquerque?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.9°F, with 8.8 inches of precipitation and 7.9 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for New Mexico is 58.9 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
57.9°F
Annual precipitation
8.8 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
58.9
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 11.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
D
City profile score · Albuquerque, NM
44/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B+
92.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$65,604
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,182 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Albuquerque profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 73/100 (B) · 38.7%
Household income: 43/100 (D) · $65,604
Poverty rate: 33/100 (F) · 11.8%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,182 /100k
Where Albuquerque sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Albuquerque's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Albuquerque highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Albuquerque, NM (this city): home $266,700, crime 5,811/100k
Milwaukee, WI : home $172,000, crime 4,132/100k
Baltimore, MD : home $219,300, crime 5,763/100k
Fresno, CA : home $348,500, crime 4,007/100k
Tucson, AZ : home $242,200, crime 3,902/100k
Sacramento, CA : home $484,600, crime 3,302/100k
Kansas City, MO : home $227,000, crime 6,223/100k
Las Cruces, NM : home $217,400, crime 5,593/100k
Rio Rancho, NM : home $273,300, crime 1,658/100k
Santa Fe, NM : home $411,500, crime 5,999/100k
Roswell, NM : home $139,200, crime 3,357/100k
Farmington, NM : home $225,400, crime 3,411/100k
Hobbs, NM : home $180,700, crime 4,542/100k
How does Albuquerque compare to other US cities?
Where Albuquerque sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income44% higher than other cities
Home value59% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety2% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at New Mexico, Albuquerque ranks #40 of 42 New Mexico cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Albuquerque against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Mexico only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Mexico-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Albuquerque near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Albuquerque ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Albuquerque only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#122 of 324
62nd percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#75 of 324
77th percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#208 of 408
49th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#67 of 409
84th percentile in New Mexico
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within New Mexico only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
44th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Albuquerque's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Albuquerque's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Albuquerque's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$266,70041st percentilemore affordable than 41% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Albuquerque's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,887 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#46 of 117
Large cities (200,000–999,999)
At 4.1×, Albuquerque sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,887 of 15,516 and #46 of 117large cities (200,000–999,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$65,604Albuquerque, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Albuquerque, NM median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Albuquerque, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
562,488
Median Income
$65,604
Median Home Value
$266,700
Median Age
38.7
Poverty Rate
11.8%
Labor force participation
60.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5810.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1181.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4628.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
57.9°F
Annual Precipitation
8.8"
Annual Snowfall
7.9"
Schools
Total Schools
195
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Albuquerque's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
564,752 residents
2021
563,387 residents
2022
560,954 residents
2023
560,284 residents
2024
558,878 residents
2025
556,588 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
1,099
housing units authorized
Single-Family
525
detached homes
Multifamily
574
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
1,094
906
188
$214.6M
2020
865
865
0
$209.9M
2021
1,667
773
894
$278.9M
2022
1,609
707
902
$224.4M
2023
1,099
587
512
$144.7M
2024
1,099
525
574
$136.9M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.4 minutes
Drive Alone
73.2%
Carpool
8.8%
Public Transit
1.3%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
12.8%
Other
2.0%
Based on 276,033 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Mexico statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $167
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Mexico at $167 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are New Mexico statewide averages, not a meter reading for Albuquerque. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Mexico's BEA cost-of-living index is 92.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Albuquerque is $1,129/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Mexico statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 58.9 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Mexico statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Albuquerque sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Albuquerque compares to similar-size New Mexico cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.