The average one-way drive to work: 24 minutes. That means that drivers here spend fewer days of their lives behind the wheel than those in Denver or Phoenix.

What does a dollar actually buy? Prices here run about 8% below the national average and are cheaper than every neighbor. That means modest paychecks stretch further, softening (though not erasing) the income gaps on the Economy Scoreboard.

The typical home costs about $280,000, versus roughly $416,000 across neighboring states. That gives New Mexico a substantial affordability advantage for homebuyers.

Home price divided by household income - that's the test that answers, 'How many years of pay buys a house?' Here, it's about four years. New Mexico homes are the most affordable among the neighboring states relative to local wages.

These figures show the share of flights arriving on time — within 15 minutes of schedule — at each state's busiest airport in 2025. Albuquerque: 78.3%, a hair above the five-airport average of 77.3% and the national of 76.3%; Salt Lake City leads at 84.3%. This is a selected-airport comparison, not a statewide figure; airline operations and weather drive this metric as much as the airports do. When airports maintain a high on-time performance rate, they act as efficient entry points that foster regional competitiveness and boost a state's overall reputation.

Designated state parks that are open to the public per 100,000 people; about 1.6 in New Mexico, ahead of Utah (1.2) and more than double any other neighbor. This is a count of parks, not acreage, proximity or quality.

New Mexico has 15 units of the National Park System, which works out to 0.71 per 100,000 residents. That is the highest rate among the six states compared and more than five times the national rate. "Units" include national parks, monuments, historical parks, preserves, and recreation areas. This measure counts sites, not visitors or acreage, so it says nothing about how large the parks are or how many people use them.

New Mexico has about six museums, galleries, theaters and performance spaces per 100,000 people, more per person than any neighboring state. This reflects the state’s unusually strong concentration of arts and cultural venues.

Arts and culture's slice of the state economy is about 3%, which is the same as the regional average. (The source rounds to whole percents, so the numbers are treated as roughly tied.)

New Mexico has about 3.7 museums per 100,000 residents, the highest of the six states compared and above the U.S. rate of 2.3. The figures come from the last national museum inventory by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), published in 2018. "Museums" here includes art, history, science, children's, and natural-history museums, as well as zoos and botanical gardens. This is a historical snapshot, because the inventory is no longer updated, so current numbers may differ.

New Mexico has about 57 listed places per 100,000 residents, nearly double both the average of the five neighboring states and the national rate. Only Utah comes close, essentially tied with New Mexico. The figures come from the National Park Service's state tallies. Listing recognizes a place's historic significance, but many listed properties are privately owned and not open to visitors, so this is not a count of attractions.

When it comes to fine-particle pollution — the stuff tied to asthma and heart trouble — New Mexico's air is the cleanest among neighboring states and far cleaner than the nation's. The state of the air provides massive advantages across public health, economic development, and environmental policy.

Major federal disaster declarations here number six in six years, against a regional average of about seven in six years. Fires and floods hit hard but less often than they hit Texas or Oklahoma.