Southeast New Mexico business statistics
and why being found online matters.

Southeast New Mexico's economy has grown fast, and it runs on small businesses. Most households are online, and many speak Spanish at home. Put together, those facts point one way: local businesses here need to be easy to find online.

This page collects the official numbers behind that picture for Eddy and Lea counties, Chaves County, and the cities of Carlsbad, Hobbs, Artesia, Lovington and Roswell. Each set of numbers comes with a short note on what it suggests for a local business. The full figures, sources and methodology follow.

Every figure comes from a federal statistical agency: the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis or the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Each one is labeled with the period it covers. We checked every number against its source on October 5, 2026.

You are welcome to use these numbers. Please cite the original agency, and this page if it helped. Suggested wording is at the bottom.

Eddy County's economy produced $11.32 billion in GDP in 2024 and Lea County's $12.86 billion, in current dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. After adjusting for inflation, real GDP grew 33.9% in Eddy and 69.5% in Lea from 2019 to 2024. The state as a whole grew 18.6% and Chaves County 6.3%.

Mining and oil and gas drive that output. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction made up 58.3% of Eddy County's GDP and 68.2% of Lea County's in 2024, up from 43.1% and 49.0% in 2019. Statewide, the share was 12.3%.

Residents of Eddy County received $4.82 billion in personal income in 2024, and Lea County residents $4.46 billion. Per capita personal income was $78,406 in Eddy, $59,387 in Lea and $54,036 in Chaves, compared with $58,249 statewide.

Since 2019 ($57,344 in Eddy and $47,881 in Lea), per capita income rose 36.7% in Eddy and 24.0% in Lea, against 34.8% statewide. These income figures are in current dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

The growth is in output and income more than in people, and it leans heavily on one industry. Population barely moved over a similar stretch: Eddy County changed by +0.3% and Lea by +0.4% between April 2020 and July 2025.

What it means for a local business: more money moved through Eddy and Lea counties in 2024 than in 2019. When someone needs a service and doesn't already know who to call, a search is often the first step, and a business that doesn't show up there is easy to skip.

In 2023, Eddy County had 1,551 employer establishments with 24,234 paid employees. Lea had 1,730 establishments with 24,911 employees, and Chaves had 1,342 with 16,093. These counts come from the Census Bureau's County Business Patterns, which covers most private employers and counts employees in mid-March. It leaves out self-employed owners, farm production, private households and government.

Most of these employers are small. Establishments with fewer than 10 employees made up 63.8% of the total in Eddy, 65.3% in Lea, 71.8% in Chaves and 70.9% statewide.

Many more businesses have no employees at all. The Census Bureau counted 3,696 businesses without paid employees in Eddy County in 2024, 4,706 in Lea and 3,379 in Chaves.

What it means for a local business: most businesses here are owners and small crews, not companies with a marketing department. The website, the Google Business Profile and the photos compete for time with the actual work. But customers who look a business up don't see its headcount. They see its website, its listing and its reviews, next to everyone else's.

87.1% of households in Eddy County and 86.3% in Lea County had a broadband internet subscription in the 2020–2024 American Community Survey. The figure was 83.0% in Chaves, 86.5% statewide and 91.0% nationally.

By city: Lovington 89.9%, Artesia 88.7%, Hobbs 86.5%, Carlsbad 85.3% and Roswell 81.5%.

Smartphones are about as common. 86.9% of households in Eddy and 89.6% in Lea have one, compared with 91.0% nationally. Still, 12.6% of households in Eddy and 13.5% in Lea have no internet subscription at all.

What it means for a local business: most of your customers can look you up before they call, and many will do it on a phone. Your website needs to load fast, read well on a small screen and make it easy to call or get directions.

Mobile-friendly website design →

43.0% of Lea County residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home. The figure is 27.1% in Eddy County, 33.2% in Chaves, 24.5% statewide and 13.6% nationally.

By city: Lovington 47.9%, Hobbs 39.7%, Roswell 32.6%, Carlsbad 29.5% and Artesia 28.7%.

62.7% of residents in Lea and 51.6% in Eddy are Hispanic or Latino, compared with 19.3% of the U.S. population.

Speaking Spanish at home does not mean someone does not speak English. It does mean a business that markets in both languages can reach more of its neighbors.

In practice, that can start with Spanish versions of your most important pages. This site is in English and Spanish for the same reason.

Local marketing for Southeast New Mexico →

Everything above is official data. This section is not. It is what we found when we checked Google's results for Carlsbad-area searches on October 4, 2026, for the services we offer: web design, video, photography and marketing. Results change from day to day and from person to person, so read it as a dated snapshot of our own line of work, not a measure of other industries.

For “web design carlsbad nm”, the top results were national directories and platforms: Thumbtack, MapQuest and Behance. Searches for video production, photographers and marketing agencies in Carlsbad looked much the same: mostly directories and social sites such as Yelp, Facebook, Thumbtack and The Knot, plus two companies from out of state.

In Google's map results for searches such as “web design near me” and “marketing agency near me”, most of the businesses listed had between 0 and 6 reviews.

In Spanish, “near me” searches from Carlsbad for web design, video and marketing returned national platforms, social media and businesses from other markets. No local provider's website appeared.

What it suggests: in a growing economy full of small businesses, people searching for local web, video, photo and marketing help mostly find lists, not local providers. The same check is worth running for your own trade. Where the results are thin, a clear website, a complete Google Business Profile and a handful of real reviews can stand out.

Put it all together. The economy here has grown fast. It runs on small businesses that don't have a marketing department. Most households are online and have a smartphone, and many speak Spanish at home. And when those customers search for help like ours, they mostly find directories and companies from somewhere else.

That is the gap Permian Media was started to close. We are based in Carlsbad and build websites, commercials, photography and local search for businesses across Southeast New Mexico. You work directly with Colin Noonan from the first conversation through final delivery.

If you are not sure where to start, start with a website that loads fast on a phone and says plainly what you do, where you work and how to reach you. Our photo and video guide covers the practical side, and the resource directory lists free local help.

How we build websites for local businesses →

Photo and video guide for local businesses →

Permian Basin business resources →

Eddy County had an estimated 62,509 residents on July 1, 2025, and Lea County had 74,749, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 population estimates. Chaves County, home to Roswell, had 63,364.

Since the April 2020 estimates base, Eddy changed by +0.3% and Lea by +0.4%. The state as a whole changed by +0.4%.

City figures are below. Percentages are our calculation from the Census Bureau's own numbers.

Employers in Eddy County averaged 34,421 jobs in 2025, with average annual pay of $79,501. Lea averaged 34,047 jobs at $71,747, and Chaves 21,847 jobs at $49,083. The statewide average was $63,124.

These figures come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages. It counts jobs covered by unemployment insurance, by where people work, including government jobs.

The preliminary unemployment rate for August 2026 was 3.5% in Eddy and 4.3% in Lea, compared with 4.9% statewide. These monthly rates are not seasonally adjusted and are revised later.

In 2025, private employers in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction averaged 7,814 jobs in Eddy County and 7,749 in Lea. That is 22.7% and 22.8% of all jobs. Statewide, the share was 2.8%. Together, the two counties held 63.0% of New Mexico's private jobs in the industry.

Most of those jobs are in support activities such as drilling and oilfield services, which accounted for 5,091 jobs in Eddy and 6,321 in Lea. Average pay in the sector was $109,426 in Eddy and $105,484 in Lea.

The industry's share of local jobs is about 62 times its share nationwide in both counties (BLS location quotients of 61.94 and 62.10).

By where people live, the Census Bureau's survey finds 13.5% of employed residents in Eddy and 14.1% in Lea work in the industry, compared with 1.8% statewide and 0.4% nationally (2020–2024 average).

New Mexico produced 2,205 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2025, second only to Texas (5,761 thousand). That was 16.1% of U.S. production and 2.13 times the state's 2020 output, based on EIA data.

Median household income was $78,426 in Eddy County and $68,015 in Lea in the 2020–2024 American Community Survey, in 2024 dollars. It was $52,938 in Chaves, $64,059 statewide and $80,734 nationally.

By city: Artesia $74,915, Carlsbad $72,306, Lovington $68,821, Hobbs $64,021 and Roswell $51,583. City estimates are based on smaller samples and carry wide margins of error, so treat small differences between cities with caution.

We used only official sources: the U.S. Census Bureau (Population Estimates, American Community Survey, County Business Patterns and Nonemployer Statistics), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages and Local Area Unemployment Statistics), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (county personal income and GDP) and the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Each program measures something slightly different. Population estimates count residents. County Business Patterns counts private employers. The Quarterly Census counts jobs by where people work. The American Community Survey asks households about where they live and work. Their totals will not match, by design.

Per capita personal income from the Bureau of Economic Analysis is total income divided by population, and includes sources such as investment income and government benefits. It is a different measure from median household income, which comes from the American Community Survey. Real GDP growth uses inflation-adjusted (chained 2017) dollars; industry shares of GDP use current dollars, because inflation-adjusted industry figures do not add up to the total.

American Community Survey figures are five-year estimates averaged over 2020–2024 and come with margins of error. City figures have wider margins than county figures. The margins are listed in the data file.

Population change, growth rates, industry shares, the share of small employers and New Mexico's share of U.S. oil output are our own calculations from the agencies' published numbers. Each calculation and its inputs are listed in the data file. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place.

Two parts of this page are not official statistics. The “what it means” notes are our own reading of the numbers, not findings of the agencies. The search results in “What customers find today” are Permian Media's own checks of Google results on October 4, 2026. Search results vary by place, person and day.

All figures were retrieved and checked on October 5, 2026. Agencies revise their data, and we will update this page when new releases come out. Permian Media is not affiliated with any of these agencies.

Download the data (CSV) →

Every source below is a public, official dataset or publication. Links open the agency's own site.

Suggested citation:

Permian Media. “Southeast New Mexico Business & Economy Statistics.” Last updated October 5, 2026. https://permianmedia.com/resources/southeast-new-mexico-business-statistics

When you quote a single figure, please name the original agency as well, for example: “Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, QCEW 2025, compiled by Permian Media.”

Spotted an error or a newer release? Let us know and we will check it and update the page.