Bernalillo County

The most populous county in New Mexico with more than 676,000 residents, Bernalillo County provides a wide range of public services to residents who live in the county seat of Albuquerque, the surrounding villages of Los Ranchos and Tijeras, and the 111,000 residents who live in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Among the services the county offers include: housing, senior and social services, open space, public art, animal care, behavioral health, economic development and more. The county has an annual operating budget and capital investments of more than $500 million and employs approximately 2,500 people, including 10 elected officials: assessor, clerk, probate judge, sheriff, treasurer and five county commissioners.

Named after the town of Bernalillo, which was its original county seat and a former Spanish military outpost, Bernalillo County encompasses 1,167 square miles bisected by the Rio Grande. It was one of nine original counties when the New Mexico Territory was created in 1850, and at one point its length extended all the way from Texas to the San Bernardino Valley in California. Albuquerque became the permanent county seat on May 15, 1883.