COMMUNITY PROFILES

A significant component of Albuquerque’s status as the economic engine of the state is the region’s outstanding transportation infrastructure. The city is ideally situated at the intersection of Interstate 25 and Interstate 40, which link to regional highways and state routes. Albuquerque’s International Sunport accommodates business and pleasure travelers with more than 160 daily departures.

Newcomers can look forward to a progressive educational system that offers a wide variety of choices for private, public, continuing, and advanced education. The presence of leading research centers like Sandia National Laboratories and the influence of the University of New Mexico continually raise the bar of excellence, evidenced by the area’s consistently high ranking in the percentage of college students per capita. More than 23 percent of the adults in the metropolitan region are college graduates and more than 30 percent claim some college experience. The University of New Mexico provides expansive opportunities for higher education close to home, maintaining major schools of engineering, education, business, medicine, and law. In addition to degree programs from undergraduate to doctoral and professional, the university drives a culture of lifelong education.

Public and private schools for elementary and secondary students are diverse and well supported by parents, community members, and local businesses. Approximately 13 percent of Albuquerque’s children take advantage of the alternative educational environments that are offered by private or parochial schools within the community. Albuquerque’s Technical and Vocational Institute provides occupational and technical education as well as traditional associate degrees. More than 20,000 students attend TVI, which boasts some of the most innovative programs in the nation in emerging fields like advanced manufacturing, microelectronics, and microsystems technologies. The institute has long partnered with local business and industry to offer specialized training programs.

State-of-the-art healthcare services and facilities are another point of pride in Metropolitan Albuquerque, where renowned teaching institutions like the University of New Mexico Hospital combine with a network of other respected hospitals that blanket the region. Skilled nursing, rehabilitation, therapies, long-term care, emergency care centers, same-day surgery, and family practice clinics are just a few of the support facilities that are available to meet every need. Throughout the metropolitan area, skilled professionals in every major specialty and most sub-specialties carry on private practices as individuals or groups.