New Mexico's population has finally topped 2 million, according to UNM's Bureau of Business and Economics, reports the Albuquerque Journal.

The population has grown really fast, with fewer than 200,000 people living in NM in 1900, through reaching the 1 million mark in 1970, and then doubling again since then. The demographics have changed quite a bit as well. Likewise, we have become more urbanized. In 1900, only 15% of the state's population was located in Bernalillo county; by 1950, that percentage had grown to 21%, and currently 30% of the state's people live right in Bernalillo County. The percentage of folks clustered right around Albuquerque is even higher if Sandoval County (with Rio Rancho, Placitas, and Corrales) and Valencia County (including Bosque Farms, Los Lunas, and Belen) are included as part of the Greater Albuquerque Metro Area.

Ethnicity figures indicate that about 44% of New Mexicans now are Anglos, while 43% are Hispanic. 9% are Native American, and only 2% African-American. Women also outnumber men, 51% to 49%. This is a complete reversal of the ratio in 1950, and significantly different from the figure in 1900, when only 47% of residents were female, to 53% male.

We've also been aging over the past century. The median age was 21 in 1900, 24 in 1950, and now is 34. Predictions are that the state will get even older on average in future years, as the boomers age and more retirees head here. It's anticipated that seniors 65 and older will account for 26% of the population by 2030.