While New Mexico itself is contending with a potential population crash due to low birth rates – represented in part by a population increase of less than two percent from 2010-2019 – Lea County appears to be headed in the opposite direction. In the last decade, the county added almost ten percent more people, topping out at just over 71,000. Who is coming into Lea County, and why?
Lea County offers some appealing factors that are drawing more and more workers and working families into the area. The industry category of “mining and extraction” is booming, with at least 13.5 percent of the workforce involved in it. In fact, Lea County now ranks first in the state and seventh in the nation for extracted barrels of oil. The rate of oil production has been growing rapidly over the past few years, drawing in more and more workers.
Outside of oil & gas extraction, sales and office administration are popular fields of employment, representing about ten percent of the workforce a piece.
In addition to growing industries, Lea County’s cost of living is cheaper than the national average. According to City-Data, the county’s cost of living ranked at 84 in 2019 (with the country as a whole being the baseline at 100).
The median household income of Lea County, meanwhile, is much higher than the rest of the state. Households in Lea County make $60,546 a year, compared to $49,754 for the state itself. This has been a dramatic change from 2000, when the average household income in the county was less than $30,000.
As one might expect from a boom in extraction jobs, there has been an increase in the number of men in Lea County compared to the number of women. Per U.S. Census data, 48.6 percent of residents are female, compared to a state average of 50.5 percent. Along with being more male, Lea County’s residents are also younger. The county has a median age of 33, while the state runs more than five years older at 38.6.
Not all of Lea County’s new residents are here to work however, as there are a healthy number of young children present. 29.7 percent of the county is under 18, while the same demographic makes up only 22.7 percent of the state. This means that Lea County will likely dodge the impending decrease in school age children that the rest of the state is anticipating.
The incoming workforce and shifting of the county’s demographics has caused some interesting changes in religious preferences over the past two decades. Both Evangelical Protestants and Catholics have seen modest decreases since 2000, while the largest change by far was an increase in people choosing “none” as their religious preference. That category has grown from less than 5,000 to almost 30,0000 today. This makes it more in line with the country as a whole, which saw an increase of ten percent in the number of “nones” from 2007-2018/19.
While the population and demographics of Lea County are undoubtedly changing, the prosperity of the community seems to have good prospects looking ahead into the next few decades.
Image source: Joselyn Rodriguez
