10 Vital Services for Surviving and Thriving Data Dashboard
Medical, Dental, and Behavioral Health Data
Medical, Dental, and Mental Health Care Need
This first image below summarizes the level of need reported in the 100% Community Survey.4 It shows the proportion of community members who reported they had a need for medical, dental, and mental health care in the preceding 12 months. This serves as an overall snapshot of needs before looking more closely at county variation. While medical and dental care needs are high statewide, fewer people report a need for mental health care.
4. McKinley and Mora County are not included in this data because they have not yet completed the 100% Community Survey.
The next graph breaks down the same self-reported needs by county. Each county displays three points—one for medical, dental, and mental health care needs—allowing you to compare how the percentage of need differs across counties. The space between points shows how some counties experience higher or lower levels of need relative to one another and relative to the overall survey response. If you would like to view only one area of need, you can deselect categories by clicking the corresponding dot icon (e.g., yellow dot for medical, red for dental, and blue for mental health) in the legend at the top of the figure under the figure title. You can see the exact percentage by hovering your mouse over each dot.
Medical, Dental, and Mental Health Care Barriers by County
The following graph illustrates the proportion of county residents who report encountering barriers when trying to obtain care. Again, each county has three points representing the percentage of residents who reported barriers related to medical, dental, and mental health care. If you would like to view only one barrier, you can deselect categories by clicking the corresponding dot icon in the legend at the top of the figure under the figure title. You can see the exact percentage by hovering your mouse over each dot.
Comparing values from these two figures (above and below) allows you to see whether counties with higher needs also report more people experiencing barriers. For example, in Bernalillo County, the Medical and Dental Care need is similar (close to 90%, see previous graph), but there are different percentages of people reporting barriers to Medical Care (yellow dot 57%) and Dental Care (red dot; about 20%).
Access to Medical, Dental, and Mental Health Care Providers
Next, we use data from New Mexico Health Rankings to show provider availability in each county.5 The left side of the graph shows the number of health care providers per 100,000 residents, a standardized measure that allows for fair comparison across counties with different population sizes. Each dot represents a provider-to-population ratio for a specific provider type—primary care physicians, dentists, or mental health providers—in a given county. Higher values indicate greater provider availability relative to the number of residents, which generally suggests better access to care. You can see the exact ratio by hovering your mouse over each dot. This figure shows where the health care infrastructure may be especially strained for each county. For example, Mora County has a low provider-to-resident ratio for mental health services (blue dot: 589), but a comparatively higher ratio for dental care providers (red dot: 1390).
5. If a dot is not present, that means it is not available from the 2025 New Mexico Health Rankings.
County Access Compared to US Average
Finally, using the same ratio of county residents to number of providers, the maps below show how each New Mexico county compares to the overall U.S. County average for medical, dental, and mental health care access. Each county is color-coded to indicate whether access to medical care is:
- Below the U.S. county average (orange)
- At the U.S. county average (blue)
- Above the U.S. county average (brown)
By using color to represent these categories, the map makes it easy to see where access to care is limited, where it aligns with national patterns, and where counties are doing comparatively better. This visualization helps identify geographic areas where additional medical resources or support may be most needed.6
6. Cutpoints of below, at, and above U.S. County averages were project-developed and determined by the ratio z-score, with “below” representing z-scores ≤ –0.2, “average” representing z-scores between –0.2 and 0.2, and “above” representing z-scores ≥ 0.2.
Summary
Together, these graphs show that although New Mexico has strong statewide needs for medical and dental services—and somewhat lower levels of reported mental health need—these patterns vary substantially across counties. Differences in both local need and local provider capacity emphasize the importance of county-specific planning and investment to ensure equitable access to care across the state.
Find out if your county is active in the 100% New Mexico Initiative.