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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-LAS-CRUCES-NM · Las Cruces, NM 112,612 pop · income 28th pct · 61 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 Las Cruces
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Las Cruces on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Roswell · lowest
50,294
Roswell · lowest
50,294 median HH income
45.8% of the leader · rank #1
Las Cruces · this city
55,176
Las Cruces · this city
55,176 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #2
Lakeville · near
55,179
Lakeville · near
55,179 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #3
Cairo · near
55,179
Cairo · near
55,179 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #4
Saybrook-on-t… · near
55,179
Saybrook-on-t… · near
55,179 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #5
Rose Lodge · near
55,179
Rose Lodge · near
55,179 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #6
Murrieta · highest
109,780
Murrieta · highest
109,780 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 Las Cruces 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: 112,612.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Las Cruces - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Las Cruces lands in the 28th percentile for household income and the 3rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
28th
percentile, household income
48th
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
3rd
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: Las Cruces, NM
Las Cruces is a mid-sized U.S. city in New Mexico, home to 112,612 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $55,176 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 17.1%. Home values in Las Cruces run a median of $217,400, and the median resident age is 32.7 years. Educational attainment runs 37.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 54.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 745 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Growing), up 9% from five years earlier. Las Cruces's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 5593.4 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Las Cruces's yearly average temperature at 59.3°F with 10.3 inches of precipitation per year.
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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,129 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Mexico run around $167, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Las Cruces workers runs 16.9 minutes, with 74.7% driving alone and 9.9% working from home. 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 Las Cruces'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 reported crime to climate and hazard context to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Las Cruces, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 61 Census tracts reveal inside Las Cruces?
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 61 Census tracts to this city.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Las Cruces?
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 5593.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 145% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What physical conditions frame life in Las Cruces?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 59.3°F, with 10.3 inches of precipitation. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Las Cruces?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Rio Rancho (106,533 residents, $85,755 income); Santa Fe (88,224 residents, $70,110 income); Roswell (47,823 residents, $50,294 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lansing, MI (112,546 residents); Gresham, OR (112,818 residents); Pompano Beach, FL (112,212 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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Las Cruces?
The NCES join finds 45 public schools within the city match. 37.3% 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
45
Bachelor's degree+
37.3%
Poverty estimate
17.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Las Cruces?
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 74.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 16.9 minutes.
Public transit
0.4%
Work from home
9.9%
Drive alone
74.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 49,158 workers age 16+.
Is Las Cruces growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5,265 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 745 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+4.7%
2025 estimate
116,978
2020 estimate
111,713
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Las Cruces?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 17.1%, 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
$55,176
Home value
$217,400
Value / income
3.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 17.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
F
City profile score · Las Cruces, NM
38/100
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
37.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$55,176
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
17.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
720 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Las Cruces profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 71/100 (B) · 37.3%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $55,176
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 17.1%
Violent crime: 5/100 (F) · 720 /100k
Where Las Cruces sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Las Cruces'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 - Las Cruces highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Las Cruces, NM (this city): home $217,400, crime 5,593/100k
Lansing, MI : home $119,400, crime 3,844/100k
Gresham, OR : home $440,000, crime 2,837/100k
Peoria, IL : home $149,500, crime 5,629/100k
Murrieta, CA : home $606,900, crime 1,127/100k
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 Las Cruces compare to other US cities?
Here's how Las Cruces stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income28% higher than other cities
Home value48% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety3% 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, Las Cruces ranks #39 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 Las Cruces 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 Las Cruces near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Las Cruces ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Las Cruces only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#165 of 324
49th percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#124 of 324
62nd percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#165 of 408
59th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#72 of 409
82nd 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
28th percentile nationally for median household income · 3rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Las Cruces's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Las Cruces'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 Las Cruces's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$217,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 52% 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
Las Cruces's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,518 of 15,516
More affordable than 32% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#298 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.9×, Las Cruces sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,518 of 15,516 and #298 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$55,176Las Cruces, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Las Cruces, 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 Las Cruces, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)37.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)17.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
112,612
Median Income
$55,176
Median Home Value
$217,400
Median Age
32.7
Poverty Rate
17.1%
Labor force participation
54.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
37.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
5593.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
720.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
4873.4
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
59.3°F
Annual Precipitation
10.3"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
45
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Las Cruces's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
111,713 residents
2021
112,799 residents
2022
113,796 residents
2023
115,176 residents
2024
116,334 residents
2025
116,978 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
745
housing units authorized
Single-Family
615
detached homes
Multifamily
130
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
6.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
686
584
102
$152.9M
2020
813
737
76
$191.8M
2021
862
763
99
$199.0M
2022
711
685
26
$193.1M
2023
573
549
24
$161.4M
2024
745
615
130
$170.8M
Permit volume increased 9% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
16.9 minutes
Drive Alone
74.7%
Carpool
10.7%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
9.9%
Other
3.0%
Based on 49,158 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 Las Cruces. 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 Las Cruces 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 Las Cruces sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Las Cruces 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.