La Mesa is a tiny town located in the state of New Mexico. With a population of 649 people and just one neighborhood, La Mesa is the 129th largest community in New Mexico.
La Mesa is a blue-collar town, with 44.85% of people working in blue-collar occupations, while the average in America is just 27.7%. Overall, La Mesa is a town of service providers, transportation and shipping workers, and production and manufacturing workers. There are especially a lot of people living in La Mesa who work in maintenance occupations (19.39%), food service (17.58%), and healthcare suport services (7.88%).
The town is relatively quiet, having a combination of lower population density and few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. For example, La Mesa has relatively fewer families with younger children, and/or college students. Combined, this makes La Mesa a pretty quiet place to live overall. If you like quiet, you will probably enjoy it here.
As is often the case in a small town, La Mesa doesn't have a public transportation system that people use for their commute.
La Mesa ranks among the bottom of the nation in terms of college education compared to other cities and towns: only 4.61% of people over 25 have a college degree.
The per capita income in La Mesa in 2022 was $18,975, which is low income relative to New Mexico and the nation. This equates to an annual income of $75,900 for a family of four. However, La Mesa contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
La Mesa is an extremely ethnically-diverse town. The people who call La Mesa home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in La Mesa, accounting for 97.54% of the town’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of La Mesa residents report their race to be White. Important ancestries of people in La Mesa include German, Italian, Scots-Irish, Yugoslavian, and Other West Indian.
La Mesa also has a high percentage of its population that was born in another country: 31.69%.
The most common language spoken in La Mesa is Spanish. Other important languages spoken here include English and Italian.
Many things matter about a neighborhood, but the first thing most people notice is the way a neighborhood looks and its particular character. For example, one might notice whether the buildings all date from a certain time period or whether shop signs are in multiple languages. This particular neighborhood in La Mesa, the neighborhood, has some outstanding things about the way it looks and its way of life that are worth highlighting.
While most Americans do drive to work alone each day, the neighborhood stands out by having 91.6% of commuters doing so, which is a higher proportion of people driving alone to work than NeighborhoodScout found in 97.9% of all American neighborhoods.
We Americans love our cars. Not only are they a necessity for most Americans due to the shape of our neighborhoods and the distances between where we live, work, shop, and go to school, but we also fancy them. As a result, most households in America have one, two, or three cars. But NeighborhoodScout's exclusive analysis shows that the neighborhood has a highly unusual pattern of car ownership. Residents of this neighborhood must really love automobiles. NeighborhoodScout's Analysis reveals that 36.4% of the households here have four, five, or more cars. That is more cars per household than in 96.8% of the neighborhoods in the nation.
Vacant homes and apartments are a significant characteristic of this neighborhood. In fact, with 32.5% of the residential real estate vacant, the neighborhood claims the distinction of having a higher vacancy rate than 95.7% of the neighborhoods in America. This can either be because much of the property is seasonally occupied, like in many vacation areas, or that much of the real estate is more permanently abandoned.
In addition, the real estate in this neighborhood consists of more mobile homes than 95.5% of all neighborhoods in America, with 31.3% of the occupied housing here being classified as mobile homes. So if you are looking for a mobile home, or you like the look and feel of mobile home parks, this neighborhood might have the setting you desire.
Furthermore, uncrowded roads, rural America and space to be the individual you are. If you like these characteristics, this neighborhood may fit you. With just 28 residents per square mile, is less crowded than 93.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Did you know that the neighborhood has more Mexican and French ancestry people living in it than nearly any neighborhood in America? It's true! In fact, 86.9% of this neighborhood's residents have Mexican ancestry and 10.3% have French ancestry.
is also pretty special linguistically. Significantly, 67.8% of its residents five years old and above primarily speak Spanish at home. This is a higher percentage than 97.1% of all U.S. neighborhoods.
Do you like to be surrounded by people from all over the country or world, with different perspectives and life experiences? Or do you instead prefer to be in a neighborhood where most residents have lived there for a long time, creating a sense of cohesiveness? NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals that this neighborhood stands out among American neighborhoods for the uniqueness of the mobility of its residents. More residents of the neighborhood live here today that also were living in this same neighborhood five years ago than is found in 98.3% of U.S. neighborhoods. This neighborhood is really made up of people who know each other, don't move often, and have lived here in this very neighborhood for quite a while.
How wealthy a neighborhood is, from very wealthy, to middle income, to low income is very formative with regard to the personality and character of a neighborhood. Equally important is the rate of people, particularly children, who live below the federal poverty line. In some wealthy gated communities, the areas immediately surrounding can have high rates of childhood poverty, which indicates other social issues. NeighborhoodScout's analysis reveals both aspects of income and poverty for this neighborhood.
The neighbors in the neighborhood in La Mesa are lower-middle income, making it a below average income neighborhood. NeighborhoodScout's research shows that this neighborhood has an income lower than 83.5% of U.S. neighborhoods. In addition, 9.8% of the children seventeen and under living in this neighborhood are living below the federal poverty line, which is a lower rate of childhood poverty than is found in 51.2% of America's neighborhoods.
The old saying "you are what you eat" is true. But it is also true that you are what you do for a living. The types of occupations your neighbors have shape their character, and together as a group, their collective occupations shape the culture of a place.
In the neighborhood, 30.1% of the working population is employed in manufacturing and laborer occupations. The second most important occupational group in this neighborhood is sales and service jobs, from major sales accounts, to working in fast food restaurants, with 29.4% of the residents employed. Other residents here are employed in executive, management, and professional occupations (22.2%), and 14.9% in clerical, assistant, and tech support occupations.
The most common language spoken in the neighborhood is Spanish, spoken by 67.8% of households. Some people also speak English (31.9%).
Culture is the shared learned behavior of peoples. Undeniably, different ethnicities and ancestries have different cultural traditions, and as a result, neighborhoods with concentrations of residents of one or another ethnicities or ancestries will express those cultures. It is what makes the North End in Boston so fun to visit for the Italian restaurants, bakeries, culture, and charm, and similarly, why people enjoy visiting Chinatown in San Francisco.
In the neighborhood in La Mesa, NM, residents most commonly identify their ethnicity or ancestry as Mexican (86.9%). There are also a number of people of German ancestry (10.6%), and residents who report French roots (10.3%), and some of the residents are also of Irish ancestry (1.8%), along with some English ancestry residents (1.3%), among others. In addition, 21.4% of the residents of this neighborhood were born in another country.
How you get to work – car, bus, train or other means – and how much of your day it takes to do so is a large quality of life and financial issue. Especially with gasoline prices rising and expected to continue doing so, the length and means of one's commute can be a financial burden. Some neighborhoods are physically located so that many residents have to drive in their own car, others are set up so many walk to work, or can take a train, bus, or bike. The greatest number of commuters in neighborhood spend between 15 and 30 minutes commuting one-way to work (51.7% of working residents), which is shorter than the time spent commuting to work for most Americans.
Here most residents (91.6%) drive alone in a private automobile to get to work. In addition, quite a number also carpool with coworkers, friends, or neighbors to get to work (5.9%) . In a neighborhood like this, as in most of the nation, many residents find owning a car useful for getting to work.