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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-RATON-NM · Raton, NM 6,013 pop · income 23rd pct · 3 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 Raton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Raton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Truth or Cons… · lowest
29,142
Truth or Cons… · lowest
29,142 median HH income
19.9% of the leader · rank #1
Lebanon Junct… · near
52,000
Lebanon Junct… · near
52,000 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #2
Garfield Heig… · near
52,006
Garfield Heig… · near
52,006 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #3
Raton · this city
52,007
Raton · this city
52,007 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #4
Barling · near
52,009
Barling · near
52,009 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #5
Milford · near
52,014
Milford · near
52,014 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #6
Pine Brook · highest
146,543
Pine Brook · highest
146,543 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 Raton 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: 6,013.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Raton - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Raton places in the 23rd percentile for household income and the 47th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
23rd
percentile, household income
26th
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
47th
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: Raton, NM
New Mexico's Raton is a small town, with 6,013 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Raton households earn a median of $52,007 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.8%. Raton's housing stock carries a median value of $148,200, and the median resident age is 44.8 years. About 18.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 49.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Raton reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1476.3 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. 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 Raton'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to within-city variation to population change to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Raton, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Raton?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.8%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Raton?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Truth or Consequences (6,026 residents, $29,142 income); Santa Teresa (5,973 residents, $60,759 income); North Hobbs (6,099 residents, $89,279 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tarrant, AL (6,014 residents); Dallas, NC (6,012 residents); Watford City, ND (6,016 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.
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.
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 -80 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.3% 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.
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 Raton?
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 1476.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 35% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1006.5
Violent rate
469.7
Total reported rate
1476.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 18.8% 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
3
Bachelor's degree+
18.8%
Poverty estimate
19.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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 80.9%. 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
2.6%
Drive alone
80.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,371 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$52,007
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
470 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
19.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Raton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 31/100 (F) · 18.8%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $52,007
Violent crime: 18/100 (F) · 470 /100k
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.8%
Where Raton sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Raton'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 - Raton highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Raton, NM (this city): home $148,200, crime 1,476/100k
Dallas, NC : home $221,700, crime 2,072/100k
Watford City, ND : home $385,100, crime 1,916/100k
Kennebunk, ME : home $429,600, crime 698/100k
Truth or Consequences, NM : home $107,500, crime 3,292/100k
Edgewood, NM : home $278,100, crime 1,636/100k
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 Raton compare to other US cities?
Raton measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income23% higher than other cities
Home value26% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety47% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New Mexico and the picture shifts: Raton ranks #16 of 42 New Mexico cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Raton 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 Raton near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Raton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Raton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#179 of 324
45th percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#203 of 324
37th percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#146 of 408
64th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#188 of 409
54th 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
23rd percentile nationally for median household income · 47th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Raton's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Raton'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 Raton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$148,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 74% 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
Raton's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,858 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,057 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Raton sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,858 of 15,516 and #5,057 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
$52,007Raton, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Raton, 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 Raton, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,013
Median Income
$52,007
Median Home Value
$148,200
Median Age
44.8
Poverty Rate
19.8%
Labor force participation
49.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1476.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
469.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1006.5
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.
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
Raton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,032 residents
2021
6,033 residents
2022
6,001 residents
2023
6,025 residents
2024
6,014 residents
2025
5,952 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.9%
Carpool
13.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.1%
Work from Home
2.6%
Other
1.1%
Based on 2,371 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 Raton. 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 Raton 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 Raton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Raton 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, 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.