About Las Cruces, New Mexico. Las Cruces, New Mexico, which lies between El Paso and Albuquerque on the Mexican border, is primarily a hispanic town with a large population of both college and retirement aged citizens.
Las Cruces is located in southern New Mexico on the Texas border. We are about 45 miles from El Paso, Texas and roughly 220 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico. You can pick up a map of the area from us at the Convention and Visitors Bureau. We're in the process of putting together an online customized map, but it won't be available until early 2006.
The last time I checked, our population was around 79,000 in the city and close to 185,000 in the county. I would say we're pretty diverse. We're primarily Hispanic because of our location near Mexico. When I explain Las Cruces to people, I usually tell them that northern New Mexico is very heavily influenced by Native Americans, where the southern portion of the state is very Mexican influenced. At one point in history, we were literally on the Mexican border. It's an interesting community, and in fact, I recently had a reporter from Money Magazine in town doing a segment on Las Cruces as one of the best college towns to retire in. There's a very young college crowd here, but it's a very popular retirement destination as well. We're a unique combination of both.
