Air Quality in New Mexico

New Mexico earns an average Air Quality Grade of B, with a 5-year median AQI of 34 across 16 monitored areas — 7 points below the national average of 41. The grade combines four signals — 5-year median AQI, 10-year trend direction, count of unhealthy days per year, and dominant pollutant — into a single A-F score. New Mexico's 16 monitored areas collectively logged 380 days at "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" or worse over the last five years.

New Mexico is bucking the national trend of broad improvement: 7 of 16 monitored areas are showing measurably worse air over the past decade, more than the 5 that are improving. Across the western U.S. that pattern usually traces back to expanding wildfire smoke exposure; elsewhere it can reflect rising local emissions from population or freight growth.

The dominant pollutant across 9 of 16 New Mexico areas is Ground-Level Ozone. Ground-level ozone forms when sunlight reacts with vehicle and industrial emissions. It is worst on hot, sunny, stagnant summer days. Ozone irritates the lungs and triggers asthma — even healthy adults can feel it after exercising on high-ozone days. Other monitored areas in the state report Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) (6), Coarse Particulate Matter (PM10) (1) as their dominant pollutant.

Within New Mexico, the gap between best and worst is meaningful: Luna, New Mexico tops the state with a Grade A and 5-year median AQI of 17, while Bernalillo, New Mexico sits at the bottom with a Grade D and 5-year median AQI of 59. Local terrain, prevailing winds, and proximity to industrial or wildfire emission sources drive most of that within-state variation.

Luna, New Mexico is the fastest-improving area in New Mexico, with median AQI falling by 1.4 points per year over the EPA reporting period. Steady improvement at that pace usually reflects fleet turnover (older diesels retiring), upwind power-plant retirements, and tighter local emissions controls.