New Mexico is a landlocked state in the Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also borders the state of Texas to the east and southeast, Oklahoma to the northeast, and shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora to the south. New Mexico's largest city is Albuquerque, and its state capital is Santa Fe, the oldest state capital in the U.S.—founded in 1610 as the government seat of Nuevo México in New Spain—and the highest in elevation, at 7,000 feet (2,134 m).
New Mexico is the fifth-largest of the fifty states by area, but with just over 2.1 million residents, ranks 36th in population and 45th in population density. Its climate and geography are highly varied, ranging from forested mountains to sparse deserts; the northern and eastern regions exhibit a colder alpine climate, while the west and south are warmer and more arid. The Rio Grande and its fertile valley runs north-to-south, creating a riparian biome through the center of the state that supports a bosque habitat and distinct Albuquerque Basin climate. One-third of New Mexico's land is federally owned, including many protected wilderness areas, 15 national parks and monuments, and three UNESCO World Heritage Sites wholly contained within the state—the most of any U.S. state.
Since time immemorial, New Mexico was home to Pueblo peoples, the Mogollon culture, and Ute. The Pueblo peoples occupied several dozen villages, mostly in northern New Mexico's Rio Grande valley. The Navajo and Apache arrived in the late 1400s, the Spanish in 1598, and the Comanche in the early 1700s. The Spanish colony of Nuevo México became a peripheral part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. The 1680 Pueblo Revolt was the first successful revolution against colonial rule in the Americas. In 1692 Spanish colonial rule returned, but the colony fell under the influence of Comancheria with the Comanche-Spanish peace treaties of 1785 and 1786, isolated by its rugged terrain and distance from Mexico City. Upon Mexican independence in 1821, New Mexico became an autonomous territory that saw an 1837 Rebellion against the central government, with increasing economic ties to the United States. After the Mexican–American War in 1848, the U.S. annexed New Mexico as part of the larger New Mexico Territory, which was central to U.S. westward expansion. New Mexico was a territory for 64 years before it was admitted to the Union as the 47th state on January 6, 1912. During World War II, New Mexico hosted several key facilities of the Manhattan Project, which developed the world's first atomic bomb, and was the site of the first nuclear test, Trinity in 1945.
The convergence of Pueblo, Apache, Navajo, Comanche, Ute, Spanish, Mexican, and American influences throughout history led to a culture with unique cuisine, Spanish dialect, music, and the Pueblo Revival and Territorial styles of architecture. As one of nine majority-minority states, it has the nation's highest proportion of Hispanic and Latino Americans and the second-highest proportion of Native Americans, after Alaska. It is home to one-third of the Navajo Nation, 19 federally recognized Pueblo communities, and three federally recognized Apache tribes. The large Latino population includes Hispanos descended from families in the colonies period alongside more recent Mexican Americans. The New Mexican flag, which is among the most recognizable in the U.S., reflects indigenous and Spanish inspiration.
New Mexico's economy is highly diversified; major sectors include mining, oil and gas, aerospace, media, and film. Its total real gross domestic product (GDP) was $152.778 billion in 2025, with a GDP per capita of $61,645. New Mexico often ranks low in wealth, healthcare, and education, but has some of the highest concentrations of scientists, engineers, along with other highly skilled workers, and one of the most educated (albeit very small) counties in the U.S.: Los Alamos County. The federal government has a significant presence in New Mexico, including U.S. military installations such as White Sands Missile Range and Kirtland Air Force Base, and Department of Energy research centers such as the Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories.
New Mexico received its name long before the present-day country of Mexico won independence from Spain and adopted that name in 1821. The name "Mexico" derives from Nahuatl and originally referred to the heartland of the Mexica, the rulers of the Aztec Empire, in the Valley of Mexico. After conquering the Aztecs in the early 16th century, the Spanish began exploring what is now the Southwestern United States, calling it Nuevo México after the region known as the Kingdom of Mexico. In 1581, the Chamuscado and Rodríguez Expedition named the region north of the Rio Grande San Felipe del Nuevo México. The Spaniards had hoped to find wealthy indigenous cultures similar to the Mexica; the indigenous cultures of New Mexico proved to be unrelated to the Mexica and lacking in riches, but the name persisted.
Before statehood in 1912, the name "New Mexico" loosely applied to various configurations of territories in the same general area, which evolved throughout the Spanish, Mexican, and U.S. periods, but typically encompassed most of present-day New Mexico along with sections of neighboring states.
The first known inhabitants of New Mexico were members of the Clovis culture of Paleo-Indians. Footprints discovered in 2017 suggest that humans may have been present in the region as long ago as 21,000–23,000 BC. Later inhabitants include the Mogollon, Ancestral Pueblo cultures, which are characterized by sophisticated pottery work and urban development; pueblos or their remnants, like those at Acoma, Taos, and Chaco Culture National Historical Park, indicate the scale of Ancestral Puebloan dwellings within the area. These cultures and the Ute form part of the broader Oasisamerica region of pre-Contact North America.
Navajos may be descendants of the lost Naha tribe, a Slavey tribe from the Nahanni region west of Great Slave Lake.
The vast trade networks of the Ancestral Puebloans led to legends throughout Mesoamerica and the Aztec Empire (Mexico) of an unseen northern empire that rivaled their own, which they called Yancuic Mexico, literally translated as "a new Mexico".
Aztec legends of a prosperous empire to their north became the primary basis for the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, which spurred exploration by Spanish conquistadors following their conquest of the Aztecs in the early 16th century; prominent explorers included Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, Alonso del Castillo Maldonado, Estevanico, and Marcos de Niza.
In 1539, Esteban de Dorantes became the first person from the Old World to reach New Mexico, where he was killed by Pueblo peoples. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado arrived in 1540. In 1598 conquistador Juan de Oñate y Salazar began the Spanish colonization of New Mexico. The campaign included Oñate's 1599 Ácoma Massacre. Oñate arrived at Acoma Pueblo on January 21 with an army including cannons and muskets. The Spanish set fire to the Pueblo. Approximately 800–1000 Ácoma were murdered. After this initial attack, on February 12, Oñate ordered that the right foot be cut off every man over 25.
The settlement of La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asís—modern day Santa Fe – was established by Pedro de Peralta as a more permanent capital at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in 1610.
The first successful revolution against European rule in the Americas occurred with the 1680 Pueblo Revolt. From Taos Pueblo, the Pueblo leader Po'pay rallied the Pueblo peoples into expelling the Spanish from New Mexico. He would rule the Pueblo confederation until his death.
After the death of Pueblo leader Po'pay, some Pueblo leaders invited the Spanish to return to New Mexico. Diego de Vargas led the return of the Spanish in 1692. with Puebloans offered greater cultural and religious liberties. Compared to the previous colonial regime, the Spanish sought relative compromise with the Pueblos on religious matters, seeking to avoid another revolt. Beyond forging better relations with the Pueblos, governors were forbearing in their approach to the indigenous peoples, such as was with governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín; the comparatively large reservations in New Mexico and Arizona are partly a legacy of Spanish treaties recognizing indigenous land claims in Nuevo México.