NM · Bernalillo County · 564,559 (2020) · 32nd-largest US city · Mountain time
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque lies in the Rio Grande valley of central New Mexico, beneath the Sandia Mountains, at a mile above sea level. It is the largest city in New Mexico and the thirty-second in the United States.
- State
- New Mexico
- County
- Bernalillo County
- Population (2020)
- 564,559
- Rank
- 32nd in the US
- Coordinates
- 35.08°N, 106.65°W
- Time zone
- Mountain
- Metro area
- about 920,000
- State capital
- No – Santa Fe
Where Albuquerque is
Albuquerque is at 35.08°N, 106.65°W in Bernalillo County, of which it is the county seat. The city covers about 190 square miles of the Rio Grande rift valley at roughly 5,300 feet — the highest of the large US cities after Colorado Springs — rising from about 4,900 feet at the river to more than 6,000 feet in the foothills. The Sandia Mountains (Sandia Crest, 10,678 ft) wall the city on the east, and the West Mesa with its line of extinct volcanoes lies on the west. Santa Fe, the state capital, is 60 miles northeast on Interstate 25; El Paso is 265 miles south and Denver 450 miles north.
Population and rank
The 2020 Census counted 564,559 residents, ranking Albuquerque 32nd in the US and first in New Mexico by a very wide margin — Las Cruces, in second place, has about 111,000, and Santa Fe about 88,000. The Albuquerque metropolitan area (Bernalillo, Sandoval, Valencia and Torrance counties) has about 920,000 people, nearly half the state's population. Rio Rancho, across the river to the northwest, is the state's third-largest city and the fastest-growing part of the metro. Albuquerque grew only about 3 percent between 2010 and 2020.
Geography
- Rio Grande — flows south through the middle of the city inside a cottonwood forest, the bosque, which is protected as a state park. See the Rio Grande map.
- Sandia Mountains — the fault-block range on the east edge, reached by the Sandia Peak Tramway; the crest is 5,000 feet above the city.
- West Mesa and volcanoes — a basalt escarpment with five small cinder cones, protected in Petroglyph National Monument.
- High desert — Albuquerque is on the northern fringe of the Chihuahuan Desert; rainfall is about 9 inches a year. See US deserts.
Nearest large cities
Santa Fe is an hour north. Beyond New Mexico the nearest large cities are El Paso and, much further, Denver and Phoenix. Distances are approximate road miles from downtown.
| City | State | Road distance (mi) | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso | TX | 265 | S |
| Denver | CO | 450 | N |
| Colorado Springs | CO | 380 | N |
| Phoenix | AZ | 420 | SW |
| Tucson | AZ | 450 | SW |
Is Albuquerque the state capital?
No. New Mexico's capital is Santa Fe, 60 miles northeast — the oldest state capital in the country, founded around 1610, and at about 7,000 feet the highest. Albuquerque was founded in 1706 as a Spanish villa and has never been the capital. It is the seat of Bernalillo County and the largest city in the state; Santa Fe is only the fourth-largest.
Related maps
- New Mexico map — the state with its 33 counties.
- Santa Fe — the state capital, 60 miles northeast.
- US cities map.
- Rio Grande, Four Corners and Continental Divide maps.
- Nearby: El Paso, Denver, Colorado, Arizona.
- Southwest region · Mountain Time Zone.