Lea County vs Santa Fe County

A side-by-side comparison of Lea County and Santa Fe County: population, income, housing, and more.

Lea County and Santa Fe County are counties in New Mexico. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Santa Fe County has the higher population (155,175 vs 73,154 in Lea County). Santa Fe County has the higher median household income ($74,689 vs $68,750 in Lea County). Santa Fe County has the higher median home value ($416,900 vs $176,000 in Lea County).

Population, income & housing

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
Population	73,154	155,175
Median age	32.5 yrs	48.5 yrs
Median household income	$68,750	$74,689
Median home value	$176,000	$416,900
Median gross rent	$1,119	$1,318
Housing units	28,125	77,686
Homeownership rate	69.5%	70.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	15.3%	44.2%
Unemployment rate	7.0%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
Population	70,277 → 73,154 (+4.1%)	149,293 → 155,175 (+3.9%)
Median household income	$60,546 → $68,750 (+13.6%)	$61,200 → $74,689 (+22.0%)
Median home value	$133,100 → $176,000 (+32.2%)	$291,800 → $416,900 (+42.9%)
Median gross rent	$895 → $1,119 (+25.0%)	$1,048 → $1,318 (+25.8%)

Lea County

Population

70,27773,154

Median household income

$60,546$68,750

Median home value

$133,100$176,000

Median gross rent

$895$1,119

Santa Fe County

Population

149,293155,175

Median household income

$61,200$74,689

Median home value

$291,800$416,900

Median gross rent

$1,048$1,318

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
Under 5	8.0%	3.8%
5 to 17	21.8%	12.7%
18 to 24	10.4%	7.0%
25 to 34	13.9%	10.8%
35 to 44	13.4%	11.7%
45 to 54	10.8%	11.7%
55 to 64	10.4%	15.0%
65 to 74	7.0%	16.9%
75 and over	4.2%	10.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
White (non-Hispanic)	32.1%	44.1%
Black or African American	3.4%	0.8%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.5%	2.6%
Asian	0.6%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.5%
Two or more races	1.5%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	61.6%	48.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
No high school diploma	24.4%	8.6%
High school graduate	32.6%	20.1%
Some college or associate's	27.7%	27.1%
Bachelor's degree	8.4%	21.9%
Graduate or professional degree	6.9%	22.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
Drove alone	77.4%	69.7%
Carpooled	17.0%	8.6%
Public transit	0.2%	0.9%
Walked	0.9%	2.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.6%
Worked from home	3.7%	17.0%
Other means	0.8%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
1-unit, detached	69.3%	63.4%
1-unit, attached	1.9%	7.2%
2 to 4 units	4.3%	6.1%
5 to 19 units	3.7%	6.0%
20 or more units	3.3%	4.1%
Mobile home & other	17.5%	13.3%

Poverty & households

	Lea County	Santa Fe County
Poverty rate	18.7%	12.5%
Average household size	2.89	2.20
Mean commute (minutes)	25	23
Median year structure built	1977	1989