New Mexico loses population in latest Census data

12.28.2022

According to the latest data from the US Census Bureau (as reported in the Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico lost 3,333 people from July 2021 through July of this year. The country as a whole grew by roughly 1.25 million residents, an increase of 0.4%.

But what is truly concerning is that New Mexico continues to stick out in terms of population growth in its region and in the Mountain West as a whole. All of New Mexico’s neighbors gained population (Texas, Arizona, and Utah were among the 10 fastest-growing US states) overall.

While there are numerous factors (including weather) impacting where people live and move, there is no question that economic freedom (or the lack of it) plays a major role as well.

New Mexico has long been a bastion of big-government and non-freedom in the relatively free Mountain West. With a positively massive budget surplus will the Legislature and MLG make needed changes?

Texas has seen an increase of 470,708 people since July 2021, the largest gain of total people by any state in the nation. The state's total population now sits at 30,029,572 people.