Quay County vs Sierra County

A side-by-side comparison of Quay County and Sierra County: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Sierra County has the higher population (11,511 vs 8,616 in Quay County). Quay County has the higher median household income ($43,698 vs $37,840 in Sierra County). Sierra County has the higher median home value ($144,800 vs $82,200 in Quay County).

Population, income & housing

	Quay County	Sierra County
Population	8,616	11,511
Median age	48.1 yrs	57.3 yrs
Median household income	$43,698	$37,840
Median home value	$82,200	$144,800
Median gross rent	$752	$695
Housing units	5,513	8,139
Homeownership rate	72.7%	70.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher	20.4%	16.3%
Unemployment rate	4.5%	3.6%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Quay County	Sierra County
Population	8,326 → 8,616 (+3.5%)	11,031 → 11,511 (+4.4%)
Median household income	$29,035 → $43,698 (+50.5%)	$29,755 → $37,840 (+27.2%)
Median home value	$72,700 → $82,200 (+13.1%)	$117,400 → $144,800 (+23.3%)
Median gross rent	$563 → $752 (+33.6%)	$537 → $695 (+29.4%)

Quay County

Population

8,3268,616

Median household income

$29,035$43,698

Median home value

$72,700$82,200

Median gross rent

$563$752

Sierra County

Population

11,03111,511

Median household income

$29,755$37,840

Median home value

$117,400$144,800

Median gross rent

$537$695

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Quay County	Sierra County
Under 5	3.5%	3.6%
5 to 17	17.2%	11.9%
18 to 24	5.2%	4.5%
25 to 34	10.9%	7.8%
35 to 44	10.5%	10.1%
45 to 54	11.4%	10.4%
55 to 64	15.5%	14.7%
65 to 74	15.2%	20.0%
75 and over	10.6%	17.0%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Quay County	Sierra County
White (non-Hispanic)	48.3%	63.8%
Black or African American	1.1%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.4%	2.4%
Asian	0.0%	0.2%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.2%	0.0%
Some other race	0.9%	0.0%
Two or more races	4.4%	3.9%
Hispanic or Latino	44.6%	29.4%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Quay County	Sierra County
No high school diploma	12.3%	9.8%
High school graduate	36.0%	35.3%
Some college or associate's	31.3%	38.6%
Bachelor's degree	12.1%	9.7%
Graduate or professional degree	8.3%	6.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Quay County	Sierra County
Drove alone	82.1%	73.8%
Carpooled	7.6%	8.8%
Public transit	0.0%	0.6%
Walked	3.1%	3.9%
Bicycle	1.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.1%	7.2%
Other means	1.0%	5.8%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Quay County	Sierra County
1-unit, detached	69.8%	46.5%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	0.7%
2 to 4 units	2.9%	5.9%
5 to 19 units	2.3%	2.5%
20 or more units	1.2%	1.9%
Mobile home & other	21.0%	42.5%

Poverty & households

	Quay County	Sierra County
Poverty rate	25.4%	24.9%
Average household size	2.08	2.08
Mean commute (minutes)	15	14
Median year structure built	1965	1983