Las Vegas, New Mexico

Area Profile

13,000 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Las Vegas, in San Miguel County.

45out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 6% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2984th of 3,904 published cities44
Growth2809th of 2,973 published cities17
Housing affordabilityTop 36% of 4,223 published cities88
Climate3079th of 4,223 published cities63
Physical resilience3839th of 4,182 published cities12
AccessTop 14% of 4,226 published cities99
Economic stability4141st of 4,226 published cities21
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published city profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places Las Vegas in the bottom 24%.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, wildfire and landslide.

A major airport is 5 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
13,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$45,125
Bottom 16% nationally
Density
1,508/sq mi
8.6 sq mi of land
Median age
43.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
San Miguel County
New Mexico
Metro area
Las Vegas, NM
Nearest major airport
LVS
5 mi · Las Vegas Muni
Median home value
$155,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 19% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.2% over the past year, to 9,801 employed residents.

Median household income of $45,125 is below 84% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$8,572$45,125Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,050$26,501Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate32.0%Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute18.0 minBottom 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher28.3%Top 33%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment9,801Bottom 3%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.9%Top 35%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.2%Top 25%June 2026
Labor force10,334Bottom 3%June 2026
Labor force participation51.1%Bottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 19%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202445k34k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $45,125 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 San Miguel County, NM, which contains this city.

There are 14.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
Reading proficiency
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
WEST LAS VEGAS HIGH SCHOOLWEST LAS VEGAS44213.4
WEST LAS VEGAS MIDDLE SCHOOLWEST LAS VEGAS34517.3
ROBERTSON HIGHLAS VEGAS CITY33111.4
LOS NINOS ELEMENTARYLAS VEGAS CITY31413.1
SIERRA VISTA ELEMENTARYLAS VEGAS CITY25114.8
LUIS E. ARMIJO ELEMENTARYWEST LAS VEGAS22916.4
DON CECILIO MARTINEZ ELEMENTARYWEST LAS VEGAS18915.8
MEMORIAL MIDDLELAS VEGAS CITY16711.9
TONY SERNA JR. ELEMENTARYWEST LAS VEGAS11514.4
UNION ELEMENTARYWEST LAS VEGAS9015.0
RIO GALLINAS SCHOOL · charterWEST LAS VEGAS8026.7
WLV FAMILY PARTNERSHIPWEST LAS VEGAS3010.0

100.0% 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 $792 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.4 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.4×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$792
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$155,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.44Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate57.0%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2836,951Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$93$792Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$14,276$155,300Bottom 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.1%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.4%Top 36%2024 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
17/ 100
Ranks 2809 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 3% since 2020, reaching 12,711 in 2024.

At 0.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
0
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.0
Bottom 1% nationally
Year over year
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202413k13k
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
2020202120222023202420253.00.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−100%).

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 84°F and January a low of 20°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 15.7 inches.

10°30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAS VEGAS MUNI AP, 5.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND3.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation15.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low20°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high84°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°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

12 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and landslide.

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingElevated
LandslideModerate
AvalancheModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, drought, earthquake, hail, cold wave, strong wind, tornado, heat wave, ice storm.

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.

San Miguel County records 6.7 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Drug overdose deaths run at 58.9 per 100,000 residents in San Miguel County.

Homicide
6.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
58.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
24.4
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 San Miguel 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 Las Vegas rather than Las Vegas 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

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Las Vegas MuniLVS5 mi8,199 ft
Santa Fe RgnlSAF49 mi8,366 ft
Angel FireAXX57 mi8,900 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
45
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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 Las Vegas

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
8770117,339$49,92045