by John Miller for the Albuquerque Journal
September 27, 2026
Poverty in New Mexico declined over the last three years, especially for people under 18, improving the state’s standing among the poorest in the nation.
New Mexico’s overall average poverty rate fell from 17.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 16% from 2023 through 2025, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s latest three-year estimates, outstripping a national decline of 0.4 percentage points over the same period.
Child poverty — an assessment of whether pretax income for households with children falls below the latest poverty threshold — declined more significantly in New Mexico in the last three years, dropping from an estimated rate of 24.2% between 2022 and 2024 to 20.9% from 2023 to 2025.
That moves New Mexico up from 50th to 48th among states and Washington, D.C., in national child poverty rankings, an improvement New Mexico officials say they’ve been working toward amid ongoing cuts to the federal social safety net.
Read more at the Albuquerque Journal.