List of counties in New Mexico

Table columns:
County
FIPS code [2]
County seat [3]
Created [3]
Formed from [4]
Etymology [5]
Population [6]
Area [3][7]
Map

Table rows:
cells: Bernalillo County
1
Albuquerque
1852
One of the nine original counties.
The Gonzales-Bernal family, Spanish nobles who settled the territory in the seventeenth century
670,968
1,166 mi² (3,020 km²)
cells: Catron County
3
Reserve
1921
Part of Socorro County.
Thomas Benton Catron, a Santa Fe attorney and New Mexico's first U.S. Senator
3,733
6,928 sq mi (17,943 km2)
cells: Chaves County
5
Roswell
1889
Part of Lincoln County.
Jose Francisco Chaves, a U.S. Army colonel in New Mexico during and after the Civil War
65,890
6,071 sq mi (15,724 km2)
cells: Cibola County
6
Grants
1981
Parts of Valencia County, Socorro County, McKinley County, and Catron County.
The mythical Seven Cities of Cibola
27,658
4,540 sq mi (11,759 km2)
cells: Colfax County
7
Raton
1869
Part of Mora County.
Schuyler Colfax, the seventeenth vice president of the United States
13,640
3,757 sq mi (9,731 km2)
cells: Curry County
9
Clovis
1909
Parts of Quay County and Roosevelt County.
George Curry, a governor of New Mexico Territory from 1907 to 1910
49,649
1,406 sq mi (3,642 km2)
cells: De Baca County
11
Fort Sumner
1917
Parts of Chaves County and Guadalupe County.
Ezequiel Cabeza de Baca, the second state governor of New Mexico
1,945
2,325 sq mi (6,022 km2)
cells: Doña Ana County
13
Las Cruces
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Doña Ana Robledo, a seventeenth-century Spanish woman known for her charitable giving to the native population
213,598
3,807 sq mi (9,860 km2)
cells: Eddy County
15
Carlsbad
1887
Part of Lincoln County.
Charles Eddy, a rancher and developer of the area
54,152
4,182 sq mi (10,831 km2)
cells: Grant County
17
Silver City
1868
Part of Doña Ana County.
Ulysses Simpson Grant, the Civil War general and eighteenth president of the United States
29,380
3,966 sq mi (10,272 km2)
cells: Guadalupe County
19
Santa Rosa
1891
Part of San Miguel County.
Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas
4,619
3,031 sq mi (7,850 km2)
cells: Harding County
21
Mosquero
1921
Parts of Mora County and Union County.
Warren Gamaliel Harding, the twenty-ninth president of the United States
740
2,126 sq mi (5,506 km2)
cells: Hidalgo County
23
Lordsburg
1920
Part of Grant County.
Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, the priest who is known as the Father of Mexican Independence
4,861
3,446 sq mi (8,925 km2)
cells: Lea County
25
Lovington
1917
Parts of Chaves County and Eddy County.
Joseph Calloway Lea, a captain in the U.S. Army and the founder of the New Mexico Military Academy
65,423
4,393 sq mi (11,378 km2)
cells: Lincoln County
27
Carrizozo
1869
Part of Socorro County.
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States
20,454
4,831 sq mi (12,512 km2)
cells: Los Alamos County
28
Los Alamos
1949
Parts of Sandoval County and Santa Fe County.
Named for its county seat of Los Alamos, New Mexico, which itself is the Spanish name for the cottonwood tree
18,222
109 sq mi (282 km2)
cells: Luna County
29
Deming
1901
Parts of Doña Ana County and Grant County.
Solomon Luna, the largest land owner in the county at the time of its creation; itself Spanish for moon
25,281
2,965 sq mi (7,679 km2)
cells: McKinley County
31
Gallup
1899
Part of Bernalillo County.
William McKinley, the twenty-fifth president of the United States
73,664
5,449 sq mi (14,113 km2)
cells: Mora County
33
Mora
1859
Part of Taos County.
Named for its county seat of Mora, New Mexico, which is itself named after lo de mora, the Spanish term for blackberry
4,773
1,931 sq mi (5,001 km2)
cells: Otero County
35
Alamogordo
1899
Parts of Doña Ana County and Lincoln County.
Miguel A. Otero, territorial delegate to U. S. Congress
65,703
6,627 sq mi (17,164 km2)
cells: Quay County
37
Tucumcari
1903
Part of Guadalupe County.
Matthew Stanley Quay, a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania who supported New Mexico's statehood
9,026
2,855 sq mi (7,394 km2)
cells: Rio Arriba County
39
Tierra Amarilla
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Named for its location on the upper Rio Grande (Río Arriba means "upstream" or "up the river" in Spanish)
40,446
5,858 sq mi (15,172 km2)
cells: Roosevelt County
41
Portales
1903
Parts of Chaves County and Guadalupe County.
Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president of the United States
20,446
2,449 sq mi (6,343 km2)
cells: Sandoval County
43
Bernalillo
1903
Part of Bernalillo County.
Named for the Sandoval family, prominent seventeenth-century Spanish landowners
134,259
3,710 sq mi (9,609 km2)
cells: San Juan County
45
Aztec
1887
Part of Rio Arriba County.
San Juan River, itself named after the Catholic saint
128,200
5,514 sq mi (14,281 km2)
cells: San Miguel County
47
Las Vegas
1852
One of the nine original counties.
San Miguel de Bado Catholic Church, the first in the area
29,301
4,717 sq mi (12,217 km2)
cells: Santa Fe County
49
Santa Fe
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Spanish term meaning "holy faith," which refers to the spirituality of the founding missionaries
145,648
1,909 sq mi (4,944 km2)
cells: Sierra County
51
Truth or Consequences
1884
Parts of Doña Ana County and Socorro County.
Possibly named for the Black Range. (Sierra is mountain range in Spanish.)
11,943
4,180 sq mi (10,826 km2)
cells: Socorro County
53
Socorro
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Spanish term meaning "aid," which refers to the help Native Americans gave to starving travelers
17,873
6,647 sq mi (17,216 km2)
cells: Taos County
55
Taos
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Named for its county seat of Taos, New Mexico, which in turn was named for the nearby Taos Pueblo, an ancient Native American village. Taos is red willow in the Tiwa language
32,917
2,203 sq mi (5,706 km2)
cells: Torrance County
57
Estancia
1903
Parts of Bernalillo County, Valencia County, and Socorro County.
Francis J. Torrance, the developer of the New Mexico Central Railroad
16,345
3,345 sq mi (8,664 km2)
cells: Union County
59
Clayton
1893
Parts of Colfax County, Mora County and San Miguel County.
Named for the "union" of the three counties which donated land to form the new county
4,433
3,830 sq mi (9,920 km2)
cells: Valencia County
61
Los Lunas
1852
One of the nine original counties.
Named for the town of Valencia, New Mexico, which is itself named for Valencia, Spain
77,070
1,068 sq mi (2,766 km2)

Questions about this table:
originalText: what is the biggest county in new mexico
answer: answerTexts: Catron