what is the deal with New Mexico believe it or not that's a very common question I get why does
New Mexico have about one-third the population of Arizona these two states are very similar in
landscape and size they're right next to each other and at one point they're actually the
same territory prior to the 1950s New Mexico had a larger population when you look at the history of
their census neither state has had a census where they actually lost population on paper they should
be very similar they just aren't when you look at the population growth Arizona since about the
1930s has been outpacing New Mexico at a pretty good clip so why can't the land of enchantment
bring in folks like Arizona does to answer that question we ran a survey where we asked people in
New Mexico if they would recommend New Mexico as a good place to live to family and friends
66 percent of the respondents said no they were also asked why they would or wouldn't recommend
it and that's what this video is about their responses got it get it good let's take a look
number 10 limited higher education options New Mexico has a small number of colleges
and universities the largest university in the state is the University of New Mexico
in Albuquerque if a small population so that's part of the reason they don't need a whole bunch
of universities but it's a giant State getting to one is kind of a pain if you live out in the
New Mexico Outback Arizona the state just west of New Mexico has 53 colleges or universities
New Mexico has 18. they're roughly the same size and area I'm not saying there's anything
wrong with the university and colleges in New Mexico I'm sure they're amazing I've looked
at some of them they've got decent scores they just don't have enough of them and colleges and
universities draw people in a lot of people will move to a state either to work for a
university or to go to a university and a lot of times when they're going to that University
after they graduate some of them will stay in the area I have friends from Las Cruces New
Mexico and they said their family and matter of fact one of them I know went to the University
of Arlington and Texas because they just didn't have enough options in New Mexico
number nine poor education scores now besides the universities you have the K through 12 grades and
they're not knocking it out of the park in New Mexico as far as area Vibes is concerned now
back in the day when they had a whole bunch of secret government things going on there they had
the highest number of Doctorate Degrees because all these scientists with their Doctorate Degrees
went and worked on the Manhattan Project and things like that now nothing bad against the
teachers the administrators of the schools in New Mexico they're just extremely underfunded
New Mexico is ranked 18th in the nation when it comes to per pupil spending and that's about ten
thousand dollars a year now for the area that's pretty good they're better than Arizona Nevada
Utah Oklahoma and Texas but Most states are up around 13 000 per student in New York it's 24
000. Illinois 16 000 Wyoming 16 000 New Jersey is almost 22 000 and Washington DC is almost
twenty three thousand so they're definitely on the low into things another problem they
have is New Mexico is a large rural state which can make it challenging for schools
in remote areas to access resources such as technology textbooks and experienced teachers
additionally some schools May struggle to recruit and retain qualified Educators due to the low pay
and difficult working conditions so they got a lot of hurdles for their education system
number eight the climate the climate isn't great in New Mexico really that can be said for every
state I guess but New Mexico can be a harsh climate especially during the summer and if
global warming is everything the experts say it's going to be it's just going to get worse
one of the biggest bummers about living in an area like this when it gets really hot and dry
uh insects rattlesnakes black widows all that good stuff start heading indoors too it's not
just you looking for that air conditioning on top of all that they got a serious drought New
Mexico has experienced drought which can have a negative impact on the economy and
the quality of life which it has and just recently we had all that snow and all that
rain on the west coast New Mexico got some of it they shouldn't get as much as other states
number seven lack of Transportation because of New Mexico's low population and rural areas there
would not be a justifiable way to build and maintain serious public transportation it's
also quite expensive to get started maintain which the state doesn't have the funding for
I mean they underfund their police their schools and just about anything else they
can because they don't have a lot of income and are not really designed to accommodate public
transit so you'll have to make sure you own a car and pay kind of high car insurance if
you move to New Mexico yeah they have one of the highest car insurance rates in the nation
number six you better know Spanish if you want to feel comfortable and blend in you
probably want to learn how to speak Spanish about 48 of the population of the state is
Spanish-speaking residents which is almost 1 million people knowing and being able to speak
Spanish is kind of important especially if you want to know if people are talking behind your
back now is that a necessity is that something you need to know before you move to New Mexico
not really but it does help helps you blend in with a lot of the different communities flags
of both Spain and Mexico have flown over this state in its history so Spanish has been a big
part of their past and their present a good percentage of the kids over the age of five
speak some Spanish or are fluent in Spanish in New Mexico regardless of their culture or their race
number five they got a high poverty rate compared to Arizona New Mexico's poverty rates through the
roof compared to most States New Mexico's property is through the roof there's only a
few states in the nation that have a higher poverty rate than New Mexico West Virginia
Mississippi and Louisiana that's about it the average poverty rate in New Mexico is
19.6 that's about 41 percent higher than the US average they're also second in the nation
with child poverty rate there's a lot of reasons for poverty rates like this but you could usually
narrow it down to not enough well-paying jobs low literacy rates and low quality education
number four lack of high-speed internet this one is becoming less and less a thing every
single year with better satellite internet but a lot of the rural areas of New Mexico
have no access to decent internet and up in the hill areas satellite internet's
not always an option even if it is SpaceX or whatever New Mexico is currently ranked 39th
among states internet coverage with speed and availability right around 10 percent of New
Mexico's residents aren't able to purchase internet plans that have at least 25 Mbps
that might be enough to work from home but if you're answering phones and things like
that you need at least 50 Mbps I'd suggest over a hundred only about 80 percent of the
people in New Mexico have access to 100 Mbps that ranks them 43rd in the nation
number three they got bad roads like four years ago I did a top 10 reasons not to move to New
Mexico and I went off a survey where people listed things they hated about the state this
was one of them and it hasn't got much better almost 25 percent of the rural roads they're
so bad they greatly increase the chances of you having an accident and that's according to the
Department of Highway Safety now they have a lot of dirt roads and a lot of just messed up roads
those don't do good things for your car and that's part of the reason that auto insurance is so high
in New Mexico there's even a road in New Mexico that's known as the most dangerous road in the
United States or it's also called Devil's Highway some experts argue that the roads
were poorly designed in New Mexico not just the way they're mapped out the way they're actually
designed it depends on what study you look at but they're usually in the 40s when it comes
to Transportation infrastructure even their Bridges and hilly roads are in poor condition
number two low-paying jobs now this kind of bleeds into the whole poverty thing and we
kind of touched on it a little bit New Mexico really doesn't have the best paying jobs in
2020 the Department of Labor and statistics came out with the average hourly wage for
every state that's everyone from fast food to pharmacists so what is the average for your
state well there's only a few that had a lower rate than New Mexico West Virginia at 20 88 an
hour Tennessee 2195 South Dakota 2063 Mississippi at 1927. New Mexico is 22.21 an hour you have
States like California where it's 29 Colorado 27 Connecticut's 29 Delaware's 26 District of
Columbia is 43 dollars Hawaii is 27. Massachusetts 31. so they're definitely on the lower end luckily
for them the cost of living is pretty low and so are real estate prices one way to look at it if
you're making 22 dollars an hour in Colorado for something in New Mexico it's probably going to be
closer to 17. if you want to make more money you can head right over the border to Arizona where
it's almost 25 bucks an hour on average now just in case you want to leave a comment you
don't understand I'm talking the average of hourly wages from minimum wage all the way up to people
that are making fifty dollars an hour as some kind of Tradesman or something I'm not saying
the minimum wage in New Mexico is 22 dollars an hour it's actually twelve dollars an hour
all right before we get to number one don't forget we have another Channel called on this
day there's a link down below we'd love it if you went over there and subscribed watched
some videos leave a comment about the secrets of the universe whatever alright on to number one
and number one high crime rate yep that's why people don't want to live in New Mexico they
got a high crime rate it's actually one of the highest in the nation as
far as States go the national average for violent crime is 3.7 for every 1
000 residents in New Mexico it's 8.6 for every 1 000 residents New Mexico is also
located along major trafficking routes and addiction is a major problem in this state
all right so those are the reasons New Mexico has far fewer people than Arizona kind of people just
don't want to move there for a lot of different reasons all right everyone hope you enjoyed the
video hope you got some information out of it now go out have a great day and be nice to each other