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-SUNLAND-PARK-NM · Sunland Park, NM 17,085 pop · income 23rd 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 Sunland Park
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sunland Park on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Deming · lowest
35,920
Deming · lowest
35,920 median HH income
25.7% of the leader · rank #1
Nulato · near
52,143
Nulato · near
52,143 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #2
Carlisle · near
52,143
Carlisle · near
52,143 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #3
Lewisville · near
52,143
Lewisville · near
52,143 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #4
Leesville · near
52,143
Leesville · near
52,143 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #5
Sunland Park · this city
52,147
Sunland Park · this city
52,147 median HH income
37.3% of the leader · rank #6
Woodcrest · highest
139,659
Woodcrest · highest
139,659 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 Sunland Park 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: 17,085.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sunland Park - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Sunland Park lands in the 23rd percentile for household income and the 68th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
23rd
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
68th
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: Sunland Park, NM
17,085 people live in Sunland Park, New Mexico - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Sunland Park households earn a median of $52,147 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 23.3%. Typical homes in Sunland Park are valued around $194,900, and the median resident age is 31.9 years. Educational attainment runs 22.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 22 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 82% from five years earlier. Sunland Park reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 905.8 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: 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Mexico's average monthly utility costs around $167 (state average). 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 Sunland Park'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 comparison shortlist to population change to schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sunland Park, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Sunland Park?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Chaparral (16,642 residents, $46,102 income); Los Lunas (17,932 residents, $63,696 income); Deming (14,735 residents, $35,920 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ferndale, MD (17,076 residents); Cañon City, CO (17,098 residents); Pendleton, OR (17,070 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.
Is Sunland Park 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 +1,471 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 22 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the education layer cover for Sunland Park?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 22.2% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Sunland Park?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 23.3%, 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.
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 Sunland Park?
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 905.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 60% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
577.9
Violent rate
327.9
Total reported rate
905.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Sunland Park?
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 74.2%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.5%
Work from home
4.4%
Drive alone
74.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,397 workers age 16+.
Low income · poverty 23.3% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
F
City profile score · Sunland Park, NM
35/100
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 D
22.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
328 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$52,147
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
23.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Sunland Park profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.2%
Violent crime: 29/100 (F) · 328 /100k
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $52,147
Poverty rate: 8/100 (F) · 23.3%
Where Sunland Park sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sunland Park'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 - Sunland Park highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Sunland Park, NM (this city): home $194,900, crime 906/100k
Pendleton, OR : home $276,400, crime 3,090/100k
Los Lunas, NM : home $232,700, crime 3,496/100k
Los Alamos, NM : home $458,200, crime 454/100k
Las Vegas, NM : home $143,900, crime 2,122/100k
Gallup, NM : home $134,600, crime 5,400/100k
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 Sunland Park compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sunland Park stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income23% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety68% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to New Mexico alone, Sunland Park ranks #11 of 42 New Mexico cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Sunland Park 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 Sunland Park near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sunland Park ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sunland Park only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#177 of 324
45th percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#150 of 324
54th percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#117 of 408
71st percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#156 of 409
62nd 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 · 68th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sunland Park's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sunland Park'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 Sunland Park's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$194,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Sunland Park's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,840 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,729 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.7×, Sunland Park sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,840 of 15,516 and #1,729 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$52,147Sunland Park, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sunland Park, 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 Sunland Park, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)23.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
17,085
Median Income
$52,147
Median Home Value
$194,900
Median Age
31.9
Poverty Rate
23.3%
Labor force participation
59.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
905.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
327.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
577.9
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
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sunland Park's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
16,797 residents
2021
17,130 residents
2022
17,436 residents
2023
17,771 residents
2024
18,089 residents
2025
18,268 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
22
housing units authorized
Single-Family
22
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
122
122
0
$27.2M
2020
128
128
0
$28.4M
2021
140
140
0
$31.1M
2022
115
115
0
$25.6M
2023
105
105
0
$23.3M
2024
22
22
0
$4.9M
Permit volume decreased 82% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.2%
Carpool
17.6%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
4.4%
Other
2.9%
Based on 7,397 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 Sunland Park. 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 Sunland Park 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 Sunland Park sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sunland Park 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 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.