Skip to main content

PantryPath Research · Rural & Persistent Poverty Atlas

Rural poverty in New Mexico

10 persistent-poverty counties

New Mexico has 10 persistent-poverty counties and 26 nonmetro counties — home to 484,821 residents living in counties with 30+ years of 20%-or-higher poverty. The state's all-ages poverty rate is 18.1% and child poverty is 24.5%.

10

Persistent-poverty counties

26

Nonmetro counties (RUCC 4–9)

485K

Residents in PPCs

33

Total counties

New Mexico by county

← Back to national atlas

Toggle between the rural hunger risk score, all-ages poverty, child poverty, the Rural-Urban Continuum Code, and the binary persistent-poverty flag. Hover a county for its ERS typology and ACS poverty rate.

Loading county map…

Lower
Higher

New Mexico at a glance

Poverty rate

18.1%

All ages, ACS S1701

Child poverty

24.5%

Under 18

PPC share

30.3%

Of counties in state

Nonmetro share

78.8%

RUCC 4–9

Pantries / 100K

1.42

PantryPath verified

Risk score (mean)

0.35

Composite 0–1

"Pantries / 100K" divides New Mexico's 30 verified PantryPath pantries by the state population — a minimum-density indicator, not a saturated census. See methodology.

County-level hotspots

Top five counties across 33 in New Mexico.

Highest rural hunger risk

Composite 0–1 score

  1. 1 Hidalgo 0.68
  2. 2 Quay 0.63
  3. 3 Roosevelt 0.61
  4. 4 Socorro 0.60
  5. 5 Cibola 0.60

Highest poverty rate

ACS all-ages

  1. 1 McKinley 35.7%
  2. 2 Socorro 29.0%
  3. 3 Cibola 27.6%
  4. 4 Luna 26.1%
  5. 5 Quay 25.4%

Persistent-poverty counties

PPCs ranked by current poverty

  1. 1 McKinley 35.7%
  2. 2 Socorro 29.0%
  3. 3 Cibola 27.6%
  4. 4 Luna 26.1%
  5. 5 Quay 25.4%

Every county in New Mexico

All 33 counties with RUCC, typology flags, and ACS poverty data.

County RUCC PPC Flags Poverty Child poverty Population Risk
Bernalillo 2 — Housing 15.8% 20.5% 674,357 0.10
Catron 9 — Low emp., Retire. 21.2% 37.3% 3,685 0.38
Chaves 5 Yes — 22.3% 30.3% 64,446 0.54
Cibola 6 Yes Low emp. 27.6% 41.1% 27,059 0.60
Colfax 7 — Pop. loss 17.0% 29.2% 12,336 0.29
Curry 5 — Low emp., Housing 20.9% 25.2% 47,932 0.23
De Baca 9 — Pop. loss 20.6% 25.7% 1,580 0.38
Doña Ana 3 Yes Housing 22.2% 28.7% 221,665 0.46
Eddy 5 — — 12.4% 13.2% 61,114 0.20
Grant 7 — Pop. loss 19.5% 27.2% 27,856 0.30
Guadalupe 9 — Low emp., Low ed. 23.0% 25.8% 4,379 0.39
Harding 9 — Pop. loss 18.7% 23.7% 748 0.37
Hidalgo 9 Yes Pop. loss 20.5% 34.3% 4,097 0.68
Lea 5 — — 18.7% 23.5% 73,154 0.22
Lincoln 7 — Housing 16.0% 27.9% 20,227 0.29
Los Alamos 6 — — 2.9% 3.3% 19,374 0.20
Luna 6 Yes Low ed. 26.1% 39.9% 25,420 0.59
McKinley 5 Yes Low emp., Housing 35.7% 46.7% 71,172 0.59
Mora 8 — Low emp., Pop. loss 18.8% 25.2% 4,176 0.34
Otero 4 — Low emp. 20.0% 28.6% 68,235 0.19
Quay 7 Yes Pop. loss 25.4% 33.2% 8,616 0.63
Rio Arriba 6 — — 20.1% 29.2% 40,165 0.27
Roosevelt 7 Yes — 21.6% 40.4% 19,002 0.61
San Juan 3 — Housing 23.2% 30.5% 121,178 0.17
San Miguel 6 Yes Pop. loss, Housing 22.0% 25.4% 27,036 0.58
Sandoval 2 — — 10.0% 12.0% 151,538 0.08
Santa Fe 3 — Housing 12.5% 18.9% 155,175 0.13
Sierra 6 — Pop. loss, Retire. 24.9% 37.1% 11,511 0.29
Socorro 6 Yes Low emp., Low ed., Pop. loss 29.0% 37.5% 16,308 0.60
Taos 7 — — 14.4% 16.0% 34,516 0.28
Torrance 2 — Pop. loss 20.4% 21.9% 15,290 0.12
Union 9 — Low emp., Low ed. 19.5% 28.5% 4,039 0.38
Valencia 2 — — 18.4% 26.2% 77,382 0.11

Find a food pantry in New Mexico

Search New Mexico's 30 verified pantries, food banks, and meal programs — filtered by city, open-now status, and service type.

New Mexico pantry directory

New Mexico SNAP

Income limits, application steps, and EBT card details for residents of persistent-poverty counties and beyond.

New Mexico SNAP guide

Emergency food help

National hotlines, 211 referrals, and same-day food options — critical in rural counties where the nearest pantry may be 30+ miles away.

Emergency food

Food deserts atlas

Rural poverty and low food access often overlap. Compare persistent-poverty counties to USDA's low-income / low-access food desert designations.

New Mexico food deserts

Methodology

How we combined USDA ERS typology codes, the Rural-Urban Continuum, ACS poverty data, and PantryPath's own pantry directory — plus the risk-score formula.

Full methodology