Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetNM-LOVING-NM · Loving, NM 1,317 pop · income 35th 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 Loving
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Loving on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Alamo · lowest
24,427
Alamo · lowest
24,427 median HH income
12.5% of the leader · rank #1
Fairforest · near
60,199
Fairforest · near
60,199 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #2
Upland · near
60,200
Upland · near
60,200 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #3
Loving · this city
60,203
Loving · this city
60,203 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #4
Whigham · near
60,208
Whigham · near
60,208 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #5
Ulen · near
60,208
Ulen · near
60,208 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #6
Wetherington · highest
196,167
Wetherington · highest
196,167 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Loving 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: 1,317.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Loving lands in the 35th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
35th
percentile, household income
36th
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: Loving, NM
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,317 residents in Loving, a small town within New Mexico. Households in Loving report a median income of $60,203 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.0%. Typical homes in Loving are valued around $177,400, and the median resident age is 35.2 years. About 3.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 45.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Natural-hazard exposure scores 58.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Loving'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 population change to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Loving, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Loving growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population was unchanged by +0 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% 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.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Loving?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Loving?
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.
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are McIntosh (1,310 residents, $65,116 income); Mountainair (1,308 residents, $41,678 income); Taos Pueblo (1,294 residents, $36,979 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bear Creek, AL (1,317 residents); Lawtey, FL (1,317 residents); Punta Rassa, FL (1,317 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Loving?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Loving?
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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 3.3% 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.
Poverty estimate
12.0%
Bachelor's degree+
3.3%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 12.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
F
City profile score · Loving, NM
38/100
4 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.
Household income F
$60,203
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
3.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Loving profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,203
Poverty rate: 32/100 (F) · 12.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 3.3%
How does Loving compare to other US cities?
Where Loving sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value36% 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 Loving 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 Loving near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Loving ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Loving only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#145 of 324
55th percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#172 of 324
47th percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#206 of 408
50th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#345 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.
Gauge source note
35th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Loving's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$177,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 64% 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
Loving's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,410 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,464 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Loving sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,410 of 15,516 and #5,464 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
$60,203Loving, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Loving, 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 Loving, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)3.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,317
Median Income
$60,203
Median Home Value
$177,400
Median Age
35.2
Poverty Rate
12.0%
Labor force participation
45.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
3.3%
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
Loving's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,391 residents
2021
1,350 residents
2022
1,332 residents
2023
1,349 residents
2024
1,373 residents
2025
1,391 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.2%
Carpool
10.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
2.0%
Other
3.0%
Based on 443 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 Loving. 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 Loving 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 Loving sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Loving 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, 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.