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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-FORT-SUMNER-NM · Fort Sumner, NM 958 pop · 1 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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Fort Sumner on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 958.
New Mexico's Fort Sumner counts 958 residents. Source: Census ACS.
28th
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Fort Sumner, NM
958 people live in Fort Sumner, New Mexico - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Home values in Fort Sumner run a median of $154,000, and the median resident age is 27.9 years. 3.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 57.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Fort Sumner's yearly average temperature at 59.2°F with 15.1 inches of precipitation per year and 9.1 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,129 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $167 across New Mexico, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Fort Sumner'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 within-city variation to climate and hazard context to schools and households to population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fort Sumner, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 1 Census tracts reveal inside Fort Sumner?
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.
What physical conditions frame life in Fort Sumner?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 59.2°F, with 15.1 inches of precipitation and 9.1 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.
What does the education layer cover for Fort Sumner?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 3.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fort Sumner?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Carrizozo (959 residents, $26,121 income); El Rito (961 residents, $24,611 income); Twin Lakes (961 residents, $22,917 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Inyokern, CA (958 residents); Greenwood, FL (958 residents); Ririe, ID (958 residents). 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.
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 Fort Sumner 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 -25 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.9% 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
-2.9%
2025 estimate
852
2020 estimate
877
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Fort Sumner?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 85.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
0.0%
Drive alone
85.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 385 workers age 16+.
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.
Poverty rate C
6.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
3.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fort Sumner profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Poverty rate: 55/100 (C) · 6.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 3.1%
How does Fort Sumner compare to other US cities?
Fort Sumner measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Home value28% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Fort Sumner 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 Fort Sumner near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fort Sumner ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fort Sumner only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#200 of 324
38th percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#263 of 408
35th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#348 of 409
15th 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.
How Fort Sumner's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$154,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 72% 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
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Fort Sumner in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)3.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
958
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
$154,000
Median Age
27.9
Poverty Rate
6.6%
Labor force participation
57.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
3.1%
Climate
Avg Temperature
59.2°F
Annual Precipitation
15.1"
Annual Snowfall
9.1"
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
Fort Sumner's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
877 residents
2021
876 residents
2022
882 residents
2023
867 residents
2024
854 residents
2025
852 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.7%
Carpool
2.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
5.5%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
6.5%
Based on 385 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 Fort Sumner. 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 Fort Sumner 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 Fort Sumner sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fort Sumner 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, 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.