Another notable thing is that Ruidoso is a major vacation destination. Much of the village’s population is seasonal: many people own second homes and only live there part-time, during the vacation season. The effect on the local economy is that many of the businesses are dependent on tourist dollars, and may operate only during the high season. As the vacation season ends, Ruidoso’s population drops significantly, such that year-round residents will notice that the city is a much quieter place to live.
It is a fairly quiet village because there are relatively few of those groups of people who have a tendency to be noisy. (Children, for example, often can't help themselves from being noisy, and being parents ourselves, we know!) Ruidoso has relatively few families with children living at home, and is quieter because of it. Renters and college students, for their own reasons, can also be noisy. Ruidoso has few renters and college students. But the biggest reason it is quieter in Ruidoso than in most places in America, is that there are just simply fewer people living here. If you think trees make good neighbors, Ruidoso may be for you.
One of the benefits of Ruidoso is that there is very little traffic. The average commute to work is 17.19 minutes, which is substantially less than the national average. Not only does this mean that the drive to work is less aggravating, but noise and pollution levels are lower as a result.
The education level of Ruidoso citizens is substantially higher than the typical US community, as 30.95% of adults in Ruidoso have at least a bachelor's degree.
The per capita income in Ruidoso in 2022 was $32,998, which is upper middle income relative to New Mexico, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $131,992 for a family of four. However, Ruidoso contains both very wealthy and poor people as well.
Ruidoso is an extremely ethnically-diverse village. The people who call Ruidoso home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Ruidoso residents report their race to be White, followed by Native American. Ruidoso also has a sizeable Hispanic population (people of Hispanic origin can be of any race). People of Hispanic or Latino origin account for 28.28% of the village’s residents. Important ancestries of people in Ruidoso include Irish, German, English, French, and Welsh.
The most common language spoken in Ruidoso is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Italian.
