PRESS RELEASE
June 09, 2025
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Alex McCausland, Communications Manager, amccausland@nmvoices.org, 562-305-9766
ALBUQUERQUE— The Annie E. Casey Foundation released its annual KIDS COUNT Data Book, a report that measures how children and families across the country are faring. New Mexico is once again ranked 50th for overall child well-being. In recent years, New Mexico made historic investments in early childhood education and passed a state Child Tax Credit. The data from this year’s report shows that New Mexico’s policymakers must keep investing in our children’s health, education, and economic security.
“New Mexico has the tools, the vision, and the collective will to lead, and has, but many children and families are still hurting,” said Gabrielle Uballez, Executive Director of NM Voices for Children. “Just as our state leaders have made progress on early childhood education, tax fairness, and expanded Medicaid, we need visionary leadership in housing, K–12 education, economic mobility, and protection of mixed-status families to ensure that all children thrive.”
In 2022, New Mexico was the first state to make child care free for most families. New Mexico is a nationwide leader in progressive tax policies and preschool accessibility. These investments take time to show up in the data.
National trends of increased cost of living, housing unaffordability, and threats to health care access have affected and will continue to affect the well-being of children and families. At the same time, federal budget cut proposals will reduce funding for programs that improve the lives of families and children in New Mexico. State leaders took a proactive approach to respond to federal cuts in real time, but they also missed bold opportunities to uplift children in the state’s latest legislative session.
“In New Mexico, the majority of children depend on social safety net programs,” said Gabrielle Uballez, Executive Director of NM Voices for Children. “With critical federal programs potentially facing cuts, it’s even more imperative that state policymakers step up with bold, strategic investments to protect and strengthen the safety net for New Mexico’s children and families.”
Each year, the Data Book presents national and state data from 16 indicators in four domains — economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors — and ranks the states according to how children are faring overall. As it is a national ranking of the 50 states, geographic disparities and relative measurement to improvements in other states impact the ranking.
Among the indicators, New Mexico ranked 33rd in children living in households that spend 30% or more of their income on housing, 32nd in children without health insurance, 35th in teens who are overweight or obese, and 37th in young children not enrolled in school. The state ranks 50th in fourth grade reading, eighth grade math proficiency, and high school students not graduating on time. New Mexico ranked 48th in teens who are neither working nor enrolled in school, and 49th in children in poverty, and children whose parents lack secure employment.
New Mexico continued to lose ground on affordable housing, an indicator where our state traditionally outperformed the nation. The state’s rate of children in households with a high housing cost burden is 29%, still just below the national average of 30%, and lawmakers must act urgently to expand housing access and affordability.
In New Mexico, the rate of children and teens who are overweight or obese improved in both the long term (decreased 3% since 2016–17) and short term (decreased 13% since 2020–21), and this led to a better national ranking (up to 35th from 44th). Teen birth rates also continued to decrease, down 10% compared to 2022. Over the last decade, teen birth rates in New Mexico are down 58%.
In its 36th year of publication, the KIDS COUNT® Data Book provides statewide numbers to help policymakers see where progress is being made, where greater support is needed, and which strategies are making a difference. NM Voices for Children encourages lawmakers and officials in New Mexico to continue to make decisions that help kids and young people in our state.
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RELEASE INFORMATION
The 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book will be available at www.aecf.org/databook. Journalists interested in creating maps, graphs and rankings in stories about the Data Book can use the KIDS COUNT Data Center at datacenter.aecf.org.
ABOUT THE ANNIE E. CASEY FOUNDATION
The Annie E. Casey Foundation creates a brighter future for the nation’s young people by developing solutions to strengthen families, build paths to economic opportunity and transform struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work and grow. For more information, visit www.aecf.org. KIDS COUNT is a registered trademark of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.