In addition, Portales is a college town. There are a lot of students in Portales attending college, and as a result Portales provides a number of services, amenities and opportunities geared to the needs and activities of students.
Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Portales spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 15.81 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.
Portales is a small city, and as such doesn't have a public transit system that people use to get to and from their jobs every day.
The percentage of people in Portales who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 21.84%: 26.44% of adults in Portales have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Portales in 2022 was $23,988, which is lower middle income relative to New Mexico, and low income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $95,952 for a family of four. However, Portales contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Portales is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Portales 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 Portales, accounting for 46.26% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Portales residents report their race to be White, followed by Black or African-American. Important ancestries of people in Portales include German, Irish, English, Italian, and European.
The most common language spoken in Portales is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
