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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-CAPITAN-NM · Capitan, NM 1,262 pop · income 20th pct
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 Capitan
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Capitan on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Alamo · lowest
24,427
Alamo · lowest
24,427 median HH income
29.1% of the leader · rank #1
Fredonia · near
50,294
Fredonia · near
50,294 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #2
Farmington · near
50,294
Farmington · near
50,294 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #3
Bryan · near
50,295
Bryan · near
50,295 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #4
Rainbow Lakes… · near
50,298
Rainbow Lakes… · near
50,298 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #5
Capitan · this city
50,299
Capitan · this city
50,299 median HH income
59.9% of the leader · rank #6
Red Corral · highest
83,929
Red Corral · highest
83,929 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 Capitan 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: 1,262.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Capitan - the verdict
Nationally, Capitan sits in the 20th percentile for household income and the 70th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
20th
percentile, household income
20th
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
70th
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: Capitan, NM
New Mexico's Capitan is a small town, with 1,262 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Capitan report a median income of $50,299 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.5%. Typical homes in Capitan are valued around $128,800, and the median resident age is 52.2 years. 20.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 48.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Capitan reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 862.7 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 53.6°F with 16.6 inches of precipitation per year and 27.3 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in New Mexico run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts New Mexico at 92.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,129 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Mexico run around $167, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 58.9 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Capitan'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Capitan, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Capitan?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 53.6°F, with 16.6 inches of precipitation and 27.3 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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 20.2% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Capitan?
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 80.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Capitan?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Cloudcroft (1,275 residents, $38,428 income); Alamo (1,242 residents, $24,427 income); Taos Pueblo (1,294 residents, $36,979 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Divernon, IL (1,262 residents); Hebron Estates, KY (1,262 residents); Pender, NE (1,262 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.
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.
Population change
Is Capitan growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+0.1%
2025 estimate
1,402
2020 estimate
1,400
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Capitan?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.5%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$50,299
Home value
$128,800
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Capitan?
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 862.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 62% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
647.0
Violent rate
215.7
Total reported rate
862.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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.
Violent crime D
216 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$50,299
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Capitan profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Violent crime: 45/100 (D) · 216 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.2%
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.5%
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,299
Where Capitan sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Capitan'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 - Capitan highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
Capitan, NM (this city): home $128,800, crime 863/100k
Divernon, IL : home $123,900, crime 634/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Capitan compare to other US cities?
Capitan measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value20% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety70% 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, Capitan ranks #9 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 Capitan 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 Capitan near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Capitan ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Capitan only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#190 of 324
41st percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#221 of 324
32nd percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#210 of 408
48th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#174 of 409
57th 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
20th percentile nationally for median household income · 70th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Capitan's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Capitan'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 Capitan's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$128,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 80% 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
Capitan's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,319 of 15,516
More affordable than 72% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,866 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Capitan sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,319 of 15,516 and #3,866 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$50,299Capitan, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Capitan, 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 Capitan, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,262
Median Income
$50,299
Median Home Value
$128,800
Median Age
52.2
Poverty Rate
11.5%
Labor force participation
48.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
862.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
215.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
647.0
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
53.6°F
Annual Precipitation
16.6"
Annual Snowfall
27.3"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Capitan's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,400 residents
2021
1,406 residents
2022
1,406 residents
2023
1,394 residents
2024
1,411 residents
2025
1,402 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.5%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
6.9%
Based on 467 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 Capitan. 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 Capitan 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 Capitan sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Capitan 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.