Unfortunately, New Mexico is not one of the safest states in the nation, recording the highest rate of property crime and 2nd highest rate of violent crime. However, some individual communities achieved decent scores on our Safety Index, which rates the safety of a city based on FBI crime statistics and law enforcement data, proving that there solid, safe options in the state in which to raise a family.
New Mexico’s safest city is Los Alamos, earning a very high 0.98 Safety Index score that dwarfs those of every other community in the state. The small city, which is famous for its proximity to the Los Alamos National Lab where the atomic bomb was created, recorded a 1.65 per 1,000 inhabitants rate of violent crime, which is nearly five times lower than the state average, as well as a property crime rate seven times below the state average.
It’s a steep drop off to New Mexico’s #2 safest city, Portales, which logged a -0.02 Safety Index score. Yet, despite the city’s high level of property crime, Portales achieved a decent 2.01 per 1,000 violent crime rate that is a third of New Mexico’s state average.
Alamogordo logged a violent crime rate of 3.6 per 1,000 that is slightly below the national average, while its property crime level is slightly above the national average. Capital city Santa Fe (#4) logged similar numbers, which isn’t bad for a city its size, and shouldn’t detract from the city’s many charms.
Rounding out New Mexico’s top five safest cities is Las Vegas (not that one), recording a 7.52 per 1,000 violent crime rate which is near New Mexico’s state average.
Safest Cities in New Mexico, 2019
| Rank | City | Safety Index |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Alamos | 0.98 |
| 2 | Portales | -0.02 |
| 3 | Alamogordo | -0.07 |
| 4 | Santa Fe | -0.17 |
| 5 | Las Vegas | -0.28 |
| 6 | Carlsbad | -0.3 |
| 7 | Deming | -0.47 |
| 8 | Roswell | -0.8 |
| 9 | Artesia | -1.14 |
| 10 | Clovis | -1.28 |
| 11 | Farmington | -1.36 |
| 12 | Los Lunas | -1.66 |
| 13 | Gallup | -2.22 |
Methodology
We used the most recent FBI crime statistics to create state rankings. There were initially 7,430 cities in the data set. After filtering out the cities with populations of less than 10,000, 2,929 cities remained. We then calculated violent crime rates and property crime rates by dividing the crime numbers by the population to get rates per 1,000. We also calculated the ratio of law enforcement workers to per 1,000. These were weighted with -50% for the violent crime rate, -25% for the property crime rate, and +25% for the law enforcement rate. The resulting metric gave us a the safety index score. The higher this number more safe the city is.
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