Population Demographic Characteristics - Poverty Among All Persons
Summary Indicator Report Data View Options
Percentage of Persons Living in Poverty by County, New Mexico, 2019
Percentage of Persons Living in Poverty by Small Area, New Mexico, 2015-2019
Percentage of Persons Living in Poverty by U.S. States, 2019
Why Is This Important?
Poverty takes into account both income and family size, and has both immediate and long-lasting effects on health. Income provides an assessment of the financial resources available to individual persons or families for basic necessities (e.g., food, clothing, and health care) to maintain or improve their well-being. Persons living in poverty are worse off than persons in more affluent households for many of the indicators tracked by the New Mexico Department of Health.
Definition
The estimated percentage of persons living in households whose income is at or below the federal poverty level. Poverty status is determined by comparing household income to poverty thresholds (income cutoffs). Thresholds vary by family size and number of children under 18 in the household. For instance, the poverty level for a family of four in 2021 is $26,500. For more information, see [https://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty-guidelines].
Data Sources
- New Mexico Population Estimates: University of New Mexico, Geospatial and Population Studies (GPS) Program.
(http://gps.unm.edu/) - U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
(http://data.census.gov) - U.S. Census Bureau, Data Integration Division, Small Area Estimates Branch, Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE)
(https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/saipe.html)
How the Measure is Calculated
| Numerator: | Estimated number of persons living in households whose income is below 100% of the federal poverty level as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. |
| Denominator: | Estimated number of persons in the population. |
How Are We Doing?
New Mexico's poverty rate peaked at 21.4% in 2013, the highest it had been over the past two decades. The rate has begun to decline, but at 17.5% is still higher than average for New Mexico, and is 42% higher than the U.S. rate of 12.3%.
How Do We Compare With the U.S.?
In 2019, with 17.5% of its population (nearly 360,000 individuals) living in households with incomes below the poverty threshold, New Mexico's poverty rate was the third highest in the nation, behind Mississippi and Louisiana.