New Mexico County Distress Index
Financial distress scores for all 33 counties in New Mexico, scored 0–100 across five domains. A county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than; the average New Mexico county scores 69.4. 20 counties score high, very high, or extreme.
Data: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Urban Institute, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts | Scores as of Aug 2026
New Mexico Snapshot
New Mexico County Map
Cibola County is the most distressed of New Mexico's 33 counties
County Distress Index score for New Mexico's 33 counties, from green (least distressed, 0–29) to red (most distressed, 80–100). Data from 2024 to Aug 2026.
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County Distress Index score · data from 2024 to Aug 2026
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Most & Least Distressed
Most Distressed
Least Distressed
Score Distribution
How New Mexico's 33 county scores are distributed across the 0–100 scale.
All New Mexico Counties
33 counties ranked by distress score. Click column headers to sort.
| State Rank | Nat'l Rank | County | Score | Score Label | Primary Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Cibola County | 95 | extreme county distress | Labor |
| 2 | — | McKinley County | 95 | extreme county distress | Delinquency |
| 3 | — | Luna County | 92 | extreme county distress | Labor |
| 4 | — | Socorro County | 92 | extreme county distress | Labor |
| 5 | — | Chaves County | 89 | very high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 6 | — | Doña Ana County | 81 | very high county distress | Labor |
| 7 | — | San Juan County | 80 | very high county distress | Labor |
| 8 | — | Hidalgo County | 80 | very high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 9 | — | Valencia County | 79 | high county distress | Labor |
| 10 | — | Curry County | 78 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 11 | — | San Miguel County | 77 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 12 | — | Roosevelt County | 77 | high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 13 | — | Catron County | 76 | high county distress | Labor |
| 14 | — | Otero County | 75 | high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 15 | — | Grant County | 74 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 16 | — | Torrance County | 74 | high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 17 | — | Lea County | 73 | high county distress | Delinquency |
| 18 | — | Sierra County | 73 | high county distress | Labor |
| 19 | — | Colfax County | 72 | high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 20 | — | Taos County | 70 | high county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 21 | — | Quay County | 67 | moderate-high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 22 | — | Guadalupe County | 64 | moderate-high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 23 | — | Mora County | 63 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 24 | — | Lincoln County | 62 | moderate-high county distress | Labor |
| 25 | — | Union County | 60 | moderate-high county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 26 | — | Bernalillo County | 59 | moderate county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 27 | — | De Baca County | 57 | moderate county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 28 | — | Rio Arriba County | 56 | moderate county distress | Labor |
| 29 | — | Eddy County | 55 | moderate county distress | Delinquency |
| 30 | — | Harding County | 47 | moderate-low county distress | Safety Net & Buffer |
| 31 | — | Sandoval County | 43 | moderate-low county distress | Labor |
| 32 | — | Santa Fe County | 40 | moderate-low county distress | Debt Burden (housing basis) |
| 33 | 3,144 | Los Alamos County | 0 | exceptionally low county distress | Delinquency |
How County Scores Work
Each county is scored 0–100 using five equal-weighted domains. Each domain averages its member indicators' county ranks, the domains are averaged, and that average is ranked against every U.S. county. So a county's score is the share of U.S. counties it is more distressed than. National ranks are shown only for the 100 most and 100 least distressed counties, because ranks in between move between updates. Counties with identical composite scores share a rank, marked T- for tied.
Urban Institute data: Breno Braga, Signe-Mary McKernan, Samantha Atherton, and Kassandra Martinchek, "Debt in America," last updated November 20, 2025, https://datacatalog.urban.org/dataset/debt-america-2025. Licensed under ODC-By 1.0. The County Distress Index is American Default Research's own calculation; the Urban Institute does not produce or endorse it.