Gallup, New Mexico

Area Profile

21,023 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gallup, in McKinley County.

46out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 7% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity3852nd of 3,904 cities measured20
Growth2744th of 2,973 cities measured20
Housing affordabilityTop 14% of 4,223 cities measured98
Climate3819th of 4,223 cities measured58
Physical resilienceTop 46% of 4,182 cities measured63
Access4181st of 4,226 cities measured12
Economic stability3938th of 4,226 cities measured30
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 7.0% and the Opportunity signal places Gallup in the bottom 1%.

Residential permitting has slowed: 2 units authorized over the past twelve months, 33% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 19% of median household income and the median home is 2.8 times it.

At a glance

Population
21,023
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,303
Bottom 36% nationally
Density
1,041/sq mi
20.2 sq mi of land
Median age
34.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
McKinley County
New Mexico
Metro area
Gallup, NM
Nearest major airport
JTC
101 mi · Springerville Muni
Median home value
$165,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 7.0% is lower than 3% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 2.3% over the past year, to 21,026 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$2,897$58,303Bottom 36%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,304$25,302Bottom 21%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate26.8%Top 13%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.3 minBottom 23%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher23.5%Top 43%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment21,026Bottom 26%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-4.6%Bottom 4%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-2.3%Bottom 14%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force22,613Bottom 27%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation52.4%Bottom 27%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.5%Top 29%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate7.0%Top 3%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202458k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,303 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for McKinley County, NM, which contains this city.

There are 9.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
18
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
9.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
GALLUP CENTRAL ALTERNATIVEGALLUP1,24413.0
MIYAMURA HIGH SCHOOLGALLUP1,237
GALLUP HIGHGALLUP796
HOZHO ACADEMY · charterHOZHO ACADEMY78111.8
JOHN F. KENNEDY MIDDLEGALLUP648
CHIEF MANUELITO MIDDLEGALLUP634
GALLUP MIDDLEGALLUP4808.3
JEFFERSON ELEMENTARYGALLUP460
DEL NORTE ELEMENTARYGALLUP424
LINCOLN ELEMENTARYGALLUP4146.2
TOBE TURPEN ELEMENTARYGALLUP397
STAGECOACH ELEMENTARYGALLUP340

80.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against New Mexico’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $927 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
19.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$927
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$165,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.83Bottom 47%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate52.1%Bottom 11%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3477,462Top 8%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$73$927Bottom 45%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$13,703$165,200Bottom 43%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.1%Top 47%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.3%Bottom 39%of 32,0012024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
20/ 100
Ranks 2744 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has fallen 7% since 2020, reaching 20,339 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
2
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 9% nationally
Year over year
−33%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k20k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202020212022202320242025131.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−62%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 89°F and January a low of 14°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 10.7 inches, including 33.8 inches of snow.

0°20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GALLUP MUNI AP, 2.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND1.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation10.7"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall33.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low14°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high89°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing42°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

63 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, landslide and avalanche.

LandslideModerate
EarthquakeElevated
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, winter weather, cold wave, inland flooding, wildfire, volcanic activity, heat wave, ice storm, hail, strong wind, tornado.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

McKinley County records 14.5 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 30.5 per 100,000 residents in McKinley County.

Homicide
14.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
30.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for McKinley County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Gallup rather than Gallup itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

No airport meeting the AreaProfile major-airport definition lies within 100 miles; the nearest is 101 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Springerville MuniJTC101 mi8,422 ft
Albuquerque Intl SunportABQ125 mi13,793 ft
Durango-La Plata CountyDRO126 mi9,201 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
46
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Gallup

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8730121,755$58,77245