Otero County area

Population and density of Otero County

The Census Bureau estimates that 70,368 people lived in Otero County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #797 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 33 in New Mexico. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 67,839, the population has grown by 2,529 (+3.7%), compared with +0.4% for New Mexico as a whole.

With 6,612.6 square miles of land, that is 11 people per square mile (4.1 per km²), placing Otero County #2,624 nationally for density and #13 in New Mexico. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the New Mexico median is 6.9. Put another way, there are about 60 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Otero County

3 incorporated places lie at least partly in Otero County. Together they are home to 35,325 people (50.2%); the other 35,043 (49.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Alamogordo city, with 31,906 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Tularosa village grew fastest since then (+3.8%).

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Otero County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Otero County is a central county of the Alamogordo, NM Micropolitan Statistical Area. Otero County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 6,612.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #13 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #109 by population.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Otero County; 17 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

798378808188310883118831488317883258833088337883398834088342883448834788349883508835288354

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Otero County

Otero County shares a land border with 8 county equivalents, including 3 in Texas. It has more land than every one of them. The largest neighbor is Chaves County (6,067.2 mi²) and the smallest is El Paso County (1,013.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Otero County forms a block of 39,072.8 mi² of land, of which it holds 16.9%.

How big is Otero County compared with U.S. states?

Otero County has more land than 4 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Hawaii (6,422.6 mi²), while New Jersey, the next larger state, has 1.1 times as much land (7,355 mi²). New Mexico’s county land could hold about 18 areas the size of Otero County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 81.3 miles (130.9 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Otero County?

Otero County has more land than 3,171 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Otero County at #57 nationally by total area, 6 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Otero County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.