Why isn't NM growing fast like other SW states ?

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

It always been an odd state to me. It is stagnant in population while other states in the region like Texas , Arizona, Colorado , Nevada and Utah are booming.

It has the same climate as a place like Arizona which has a huge retiree population and a booming Hispanic population.

So why aren't people moving there ?

[CountyTy90]

I think for a couple different reasons. First off, Albuquerque isn't that large to where it's a booming city and economy like Denver or Phoenix attracting people from all over. Also to me, the landscape seems more indicative of West Texas than Arizona and West Texas is not exactly booming either. I also think it's a bit isolated; it's pretty much smack dab in the middle of the country. While Arizona and Nevada are close to California, New Mexico, again, is next to West Texas.

That being said, I would rather live in New Mexico than Arizona, Nevada, Texas any day of the week.

[Sol]

Smaller Mormon population=lower population rates of increase.

Also, NM doesn't have a large city like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The mormons only have a noticeable impact on,population structure in Utah.  New Mexico missed out for many reasons... But Mormonism and Vegas aren't why.

New Mexico lives up to its name with a distinctive Native and Mexican culture.  That and the cities being smaller have stifled migration there... As has the weather.  New Mexico gets the coldest of the southern tier states.  Its 41°F in Santa Fe at the moment.  It's high desert scrub and mountains with pinyon and juniper in between.  It is more like southern Colorado and Northern Mexico than like Texas or Arizona.

So rather than draw retirees to a warm, dry snowbird type setup... They draw more permanent and liberal minded retirees that like art galleries and Native American trinkets that they can decorate their adobe style homes with.

It's to the southwest what Louisiana is to the deep south.  A bit different and unique.

[ElectionsGuy]

Smaller Mormon population=lower population rates of increase.

Also, NM doesn't have a large city like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Albuquerque (pop = 556,493) not a big city? Its almost as big as Vegas.

[Gass3268]

Smaller Mormon population=lower population rates of increase.

Also, NM doesn't have a large city like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Albuquerque (pop = 556,493) not a big city? Its almost as big as Vegas.

Also the Albuquerque is one of the areas of the state that is growing, but just not as fast as Phoenix or Vegas.

[Indy Texas]

I've never entirely understood what people...do...in New Mexico. There are a few ranches in the eastern part of the state. They have some oil and gas, but not much.

You've got the research labs at Los Alamos, but not everyone is a nuclear physicist.

So do other people just work as seasonal ski bums and sell art?

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Smaller Mormon population=lower population rates of increase.

Also, NM doesn't have a large city like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Albuquerque (pop = 556,493) not a big city? Its almost as big as Vegas.

That's the city population though. The Albuquerque metro population is around 900,000 while metro Phoenix is 3,000,000 + and metro Denver is 2,500,000 +. 

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

I've never entirely understood what people...do...in New Mexico. There are a few ranches in the eastern part of the state. They have some oil and gas, but not much.

You've got the research labs at Los Alamos, but not everyone is a nuclear physicist.

So do other people just work as seasonal ski bums and sell art?

Texans are Cowboys and Oilmen, Coloradans are pot smoking snowboarders, and I have no idea for New Mexico. It seriously has nothing unique to me.

[CountyTy90]

I've never entirely understood what people...do...in New Mexico. There are a few ranches in the eastern part of the state. They have some oil and gas, but not much.

You've got the research labs at Los Alamos, but not everyone is a nuclear physicist.

So do other people just work as seasonal ski bums and sell art?

Texans are Cowboys and Oilmen, Coloradans are pot smoking snowboarders, and I have no idea for New Mexico. It seriously has nothing unique to me.

Are you kidding? If I had to pick one of the most culturally rich states I honestly would pick New Mexico. It has such a diverse population, landscape, history, etc. It's called the Land of Enchantment for a reason.

Despite it being called New Mexico, a large percent of New Mexico's Hispanic population is actually not Mexican, they're Spanish, descendents from the Spaniards who settled the area.

Then you have the numerous Native American tribes. Pottery, jewelry, rugs, among others are their specialty and draw tourists every year.

I would disagree and say that New Mexico is actually one of the most unique states we have.

[jimrtex]

It always been an odd state to me. It is stagnant in population while other states in the region like Texas , Arizona, Colorado , Nevada and Utah are booming.

It has the same climate as a place like Arizona which has a huge retiree population and a booming Hispanic population.

So why aren't people moving there ?

Click on this link:

Arizona and New Mexico population

Then uncheck the Arizona box, and see how much faster New Mexico grew when not compared with Arizona.   Then check Montana.   And Idaho.

Albuquerque is 3900 feet, so would a bit of an altitude problem for retirees.  And that it actually had a population, meant it could not be totally remade into a retirement paradise like Phoenix which was just miles of cotton farms.

[The Mikado]

Santa Fe's one of my favorite places in the USA, and it's small enough to have not been ruined yet.

[Türkisblau]

Well yeah I guess I expected nobody in here to understand NM and I honestly have trouble with it sometimes.

When I moved from here, two rich retired doctors from Williamsburg bought our house (and ruined our immaculate yard...) so it definitely has an appeal to retired folks but New Mexico has always been a frontier in the middle of the nation with a distinct culture that many have difficulty understanding. When my family moved to NM it was for work and we were extremely skeptical about it. The beautiful landscape and the delicious food made us stay.

So yeah the answer really is that it only attracts people working for national labs or companies like Intel (in Rio Rancho) and the artsy kind of folk who enjoy the culture there. It isn't like Phoenix and Denver which get people for all sorts of reasons. New Mexico and its cities don't have any mass appeal to most people to want them to move to the state, and I think we like it that way

[Tender Branson]

So why aren't people moving there ?

[Joe Republic]

Smaller Mormon population=lower population rates of increase.

Also, NM doesn't have a large city like Las Vegas or Phoenix.

Albuquerque (pop = 556,493) not a big city? Its almost as big as Vegas.

That's the city population though. The Albuquerque metro population is around 900,000 while metro Phoenix is 3,000,000 + and metro Denver is 2,500,000 +. 

And Vegas is 2 million.

[TDAS04]

New Mexico is indeed a culturally unique state.  It may be the closet thing there is to a US version of Quebec.

[muon2]

It always been an odd state to me. It is stagnant in population while other states in the region like Texas , Arizona, Colorado , Nevada and Utah are booming.

It has the same climate as a place like Arizona which has a huge retiree population and a booming Hispanic population.

So why aren't people moving there ?

Click on this link:

Arizona and New Mexico population

Then uncheck the Arizona box, and see how much faster New Mexico grew when not compared with Arizona.   Then check Montana.   And Idaho.

Albuquerque is 3900 feet, so would a bit of an altitude problem for retirees.  And that it actually had a population, meant it could not be totally remade into a retirement paradise like Phoenix which was just miles of cotton farms.

As your link reveals, NM benefited from the post war population increase largely fueled by Los Alamos and to a greater extent Sandia. Since 1970 both NM and ID have slightly more than doubled while MT has grown at half that rate, and perhaps investment in federal labs in ID has had a hand in that as in NM.

I have found Albuquerque a fine city to visit on my two trips there in the last 15 years. I would think it might have some of the same attraction to emigrants as Front Range cities like Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

[Panda Express]

It might be because the name is kind of stupid. "Colorado", "Nevada" "Arizona" and "Utah" all sound way more cool than "New Mexico" which is lame.

[IceSpear]

It might be because the name is kind of stupid. "Colorado", "Nevada" "Arizona" and "Utah" all sound way more cool than "New Mexico" which is lame.

Old white people don't want to move there because it has "Mexico" in the name.

[Sol]

It always been an odd state to me. It is stagnant in population while other states in the region like Texas , Arizona, Colorado , Nevada and Utah are booming.

It has the same climate as a place like Arizona which has a huge retiree population and a booming Hispanic population.

So why aren't people moving there ?

Click on this link:

Arizona and New Mexico population

Then uncheck the Arizona box, and see how much faster New Mexico grew when not compared with Arizona.   Then check Montana.   And Idaho.

Albuquerque is 3900 feet, so would a bit of an altitude problem for retirees.  And that it actually had a population, meant it could not be totally remade into a retirement paradise like Phoenix which was just miles of cotton farms.

As your link reveals, NM benefited from the post war population increase largely fueled by Los Alamos and to a greater extent Sandia. Since 1970 both NM and ID have slightly more than doubled while MT has grown at half that rate, and perhaps investment in federal labs in ID has had a hand in that as in NM.

I have found Albuquerque a fine city to visit on my two trips there in the last 15 years. I would think it might have some of the same attraction to emigrants as Front Range cities like Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Does Pueblo really attract that many outsiders? I thought it was sort of rust belt in the rockies type place.

[Türkisblau]

It might be because the name is kind of stupid. "Colorado", "Nevada" "Arizona" and "Utah" all sound way more cool than "New Mexico" which is lame.

I don't think that's relevant at all...

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

It might be because the name is kind of stupid. "Colorado", "Nevada" "Arizona" and "Utah" all sound way more cool than "New Mexico" which is lame.

I don't think that's relevant at all...

No its not, but Nuevo México would be cooler.

[muon2]

It always been an odd state to me. It is stagnant in population while other states in the region like Texas , Arizona, Colorado , Nevada and Utah are booming.

It has the same climate as a place like Arizona which has a huge retiree population and a booming Hispanic population.

So why aren't people moving there ?

Click on this link:

Arizona and New Mexico population

Then uncheck the Arizona box, and see how much faster New Mexico grew when not compared with Arizona.   Then check Montana.   And Idaho.

Albuquerque is 3900 feet, so would a bit of an altitude problem for retirees.  And that it actually had a population, meant it could not be totally remade into a retirement paradise like Phoenix which was just miles of cotton farms.

As your link reveals, NM benefited from the post war population increase largely fueled by Los Alamos and to a greater extent Sandia. Since 1970 both NM and ID have slightly more than doubled while MT has grown at half that rate, and perhaps investment in federal labs in ID has had a hand in that as in NM.

I have found Albuquerque a fine city to visit on my two trips there in the last 15 years. I would think it might have some of the same attraction to emigrants as Front Range cities like Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Does Pueblo really attract that many outsiders? I thought it was sort of rust belt in the rockies type place.

That's true to some extent in that the city has been stagnant since the 80's. However the surrounding area (such as Pueblo West) has contributed to double digit growth for the county in each of the last two decades.

[King]

New Mexico for a long time was cold to outsiders. It's changed in the past two decades. Maybe in 100 years.

I could see a movement to change the state name to Nuevo Mexico if Puerto Rico becomes a state.

[Adam Griffin]

So I actually made a couple of GIFs awhile back of percent changes in population by year and was amused to see that NM was one of only a couple of states that had years in the past decade in which it was in the top 10 (2002-2003; 2009-2010) and bottom 10 (2012-2013) in terms of population growth:

Top 10 by Year



Top & Bottom 10 by Year