City safety & data profile
PortalesNM
Portales, NM is a 12K-resident city in Roosevelt County with a median household income of $50,555.
Roosevelt County, New Mexico. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Portales, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Portales has a population larger than 13% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $133,400, and 1 hospital serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 12K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 14%
- By size
- $50,555
- Median income (place)
- $133,400
- Median home (place)
- 28.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Portales
Portales posts a median household income higher than 10% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 hospital serves the Portales area.
- Bottom 11%
- by median income, US cities
- 1
- hospital in & near Portales
Where Portales income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$50,555 Bottom 10% higher than 10% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in NM
Population among 23 NM places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Albuquerque
Albuquerque, NM
564,559 residents
- Las Cruces 101,643
Las Cruces, NM
101,643 residents
- Rio Rancho 87,521
Rio Rancho, NM
87,521 residents
- Santa Fe 87,505
Santa Fe, NM
87,505 residents
- Roswell 48,544
Roswell, NM
48,544 residents
- Farmington 42,871
Farmington, NM
42,871 residents
- South Valley 40,976
South Valley, NM
40,976 residents
- Clovis 39,480
Clovis, NM
39,480 residents
- Hobbs 38,416
Hobbs, NM
38,416 residents
- Alamogordo 30,753
Alamogordo, NM
30,753 residents
What this shows Albuquerque is the largest NM city on this list; Los Alamos leads median income.
Highest median incomes in NM
Median household income among the same 23-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Los Alamos
Los Alamos, NM
$141,018 median
- Rio Rancho
Rio Rancho, NM
$89,596 median
- Artesia
Artesia, NM
$74,915 median
- Santa Fe
Santa Fe, NM
$73,482 median
- Carlsbad
Carlsbad, NM
$72,306 median
- Lovington
Lovington, NM
$68,821 median
- Farmington
Farmington, NM
$68,784 median
- Albuquerque
Albuquerque, NM
$68,317 median
- Hobbs
Hobbs, NM
$64,021 median
- Sunland Park
Sunland Park, NM
$62,814 median
What this shows Los Alamos posts the highest place-level median income in NM; Albuquerque is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Portales, NM beyond the headline numbers
Portales sits inside Roosevelt County, New Mexico, at roughly 34.19°N, -103.33°W. Population 11,995, $50,555 median household income. Median home value $133,400, median rent $903. Poverty rate 28.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
1 hospital in/around Portales, 0 with an ER.
28.1% of Portales, NM residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Portales runs about 2.6 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 3.7% of Portales workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, lack of health insurance departs furthest from its peer median: 15.7% in Portales, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0% of Portales workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Portales's median age is 27.1 years, in the youngest quarter of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Portales from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Roosevelt County): Portales's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 28.1% +127% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 7.1% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 25.4% |
| Work From Home | 3.7% |
| Public Transit | 0% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Portales?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Portales right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet NM-PORTALES · Portales
Portales: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Portales; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse New Mexico state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Portales, NM? ▼
What is the median household income in Portales? ▼
What is the median home value in Portales? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Portales? ▼
How many hospitals are in Portales? ▼
What is the median age in Portales? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Portales, both outside New Mexico so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside NM (28.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside NM ($50,555 here).
Compare Portales with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Portales's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Portales area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Portales against New Mexico peers on any ranking lens. Explore New Mexico
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Roosevelt County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.