New Mexico and Albuquerque find themselves on many national rankings, sometimes in a positive light and sometimes not so much. As a part of our year-in-review coverage, we took a look at some of the more notable rankings the state and city landed on in 2015.
New Mexico is known for its unique cuisine and culinary culture. Albuquerque is also turning out to be a burgeoning spot for breweries. In August, Travel + Leisure released a reader-driven list of the “20 Best Cities for Beer Lovers.” Albuquerque ranked 17th on the list, right ahead of beer mecca San Diego.
New Mexico lands on many national rankings; some are good and some are not. Whether negative or positive , the numbers show where the state can improve.
The state also saw many improvements in annual national rankings. In June, New Mexico jumped 13 spots in the 2015 CNBC America’s Top States for Business. In 2014, New Mexico ranked 37th but this year climbed to 24th, tying with Kansas.
In a big blow, though, business and economics website 24/7 Wall Street ranked New Mexico the worst-run state in the nation. Extreme poverty, a high violent-crime rate and more people moving out than moving in all contributed to New Mexico landing at the bottom of the list.
When it comes to child wellness, New Mexico is still struggling. According to the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, New Mexico is still ranked 49th in the country based on a slew of markers. While New Mexico did improve in some categories, like children without health insurance, it was not enough to bump it up in the rankings.
New Mexico gets a lot of sun and that is one reason we rank well in some energy efficiency rankings. WalletHub ranked the state 13th out of 48 states for energy efficiency. Some reports differ, however, with different qualifications to determine energy efficiency. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy placed New Mexico 31st on its 2015 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard due in part to limited funding and lack of support for energy initiatives.
Tourism got a boost when Albuquerque was named the 10th best summer destination, the 12th best city for recreation and second best for cold-weather holiday travel destinations.
And finally, let’s not forget that Huffington Post this year named Albuquerque among the ” 5 Secretly Cool Cities Where You Can Still Get in on the Ground Floor.”
By: Juliana Vadnais (Albuquerque Business First)
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