10 Best Places to Retire in New Mexico

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For those of you who are thinking about retiring to New Mexico, but aren’t sure where exactly, worry not because we bring you the 10 best places to retire in New Mexico. If you appreciate mountains, high plains, and desert, there is no better state.

Even though most people presume that the state’s name is taken from the nation of Mexico, New Mexico actually got its name in 1563 thanks to the Spanish explorers. The country of Mexico, being a part of New Spain, got its name centuries later, around 1821. Truth to be told, New Mexico, which is located on the border of Mexico, was a part of the country, but only for about 12 years, and it became part of the United States on January 6, 1912.

New Mexico stands out from other states by having the most percentage of the Hispanic and Latin population, 47% according to the latest data. They trace their ancestors to Spanish colonists who came between 16th and 18th century.  Due to this, almost half of Hispanic and Latin population speak Spanish at home. If you would like to practice or learn Spanish, there is no better place. Also, New Mexico has the second highest percentage of Native Americans (9,4%), Navajo and Apache tribes being the largest ones.

To determine best retiring places in New Mexico, we used 20 most livable places in New Mexico (with a population greater than 5,000) according to Area Vibes. After that, we checked each place for the cost of living, the number of physicians per capita (100,000), crime rates and residents aged 65 years and over. All the data was taken from Sperling’s Best Places and U.S. Census and separate rankings from 1 to 20 were made for each of these factors. After we had summed up the scores for each place in Retirement Score, we got what we were looking for.

And if you are still not sure about moving to New Mexico to enjoy your golden years and want to explore more options, don’t skip our article on cheapest countries to live like a king.

Let’s begin our list of the best places for enjoying your life in New Mexico, after your hard working days are over!

10. Santa Fe

Retirement Score: 43

Cost of Living: 20% more expensive than the U.S. average

Physicians per Capita: 305

Crime Rates: 64

Residents Aged 65 and Over: 17,6%

The fourth largest city in the state, Santa Fe is also the oldest city in New Mexico. It was founded by Spanish colonists, but was inhabited by ingenious people for several hundred years.

Best Places to Retire in New Mexico

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