New Mexico is actually the POOREST state in the nation

At Rio Grande Foundation we are constantly looking for new ways to prevent data to highlight our free market, limited government perspective. Sometimes we use existing data sets and sometimes we find other sources online or in hard copy that highlight what we are talking about.

New Mexico has been a poor state for a long time. By that we mean the people of New Mexico. The State itself is quite wealthy. That difference is one reason why we advocate for tax cuts and reforms that will make New Mexico’s economy both better and more diversified. Along with long-needed education reforms like school choice, we believe that New Mexico CAN do so much better.

Of course, poverty is a real issue in New Mexico. We are consistently ranked as being among the poorest states in the nation, but we rarely rank as the very poorest. But the following chart from VisualCapitalist.com does exactly that. Based on a three year average of data from 2020, 2021, and 2022 and using US Census Bureau Data, New Mexico is ranked as THE poorest state in the US.