4th Smartest City: When it comes of graduate degrees, the Albuquerque/Rio Rancho metro area has them in spades. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 17 percent of metro area residents here hold graduate degrees, fourth highest in the country (among cities of 250,000 or higher). Only Washington, D.C., Seattle, and San Francisco have higher percentages.

#7 For Business: Inc Magazine ranked the Albuquerque/Rio Rancho metro area the 7th best medium city in the country for doing business. The magazine, geared to entrepreneurs, ranked 250 metro areas and was especially attracted to Albuquerque's low cost of living.

1 And Only: New Mexico was the only state in the US that instituted a significant tax cut in 2003.

New Mexico is ranked first in the nation - and in the world - in total computing power with two of the world's three fastest computers. In fact, New Mexico alone has almost as much super- computing capabilities as all of Japan.

Albuquerque/Rio Rancho fit and trim: The Albuquerque/Rio Rancho metro area, blessed with four seasons and sunny skies, was named the 12th fittest place to live in 2004 according to Men's Fitness magazine. The mile-high metro area placed highest in the exercise/sports participation category, in particular hiking, camping, biking, and swimming.

New Mexico gets A's in employment, infrastructure: The Corporation for Enterprise Development gave the state of New Mexico the grade of A for both employment (the state's 1.8 percent job growth was one of the highest in the nation), and infrastructure resources.

Rio Rancho:  Rio Rancho is home to one of Intel's largest manufacturing facilities and is the areas fastest growing community.  In January 2006, Rio Rancho approved their plans to develop a civic center which will include an 8,000 seat arena, the states 3rd largest university campus, and city offices.