Albuquerque, NM (population: 535,923) has two animal care schools within its city limits. Pima Medical Institute, the highest ranked school in the city with an animal care program, has a total student population of 1,003. It is the 2978th highest ranked school in the USA and the 11th highest in the state of New Mexico (#1 is New Mexico State University-Main Campus).
Animal Care students from Albuquerque schools who go on to become animal care supervisors, veterinarians, animal trainers, animal behavioralists, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 15,320 people working as animal control workers alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $33,560. Also, Veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers make on average $23,400 per year and there are about 71,350 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Albuquerque area alone, there are 370 employed veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers earning an average salary of $28,330. Animal control workers in this area earn $28,950/yr and there are 50 employed.
Albuquerque lies in Bernalillo county, which is one of the 23 counties in New Mexico. Overall, the Albuquerque area has 381,870 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.6% unemployment rate, $19.31/hr average worker wage, and a $40,170 average annual salary. Thus, about 0.121 out of every 1000 jobs in Albuquerque are held by animal control workers, and 0.958/1000 are held by veterinary assistants and laboratory animal caretakers.
Of the 2 animal care schools in Albuquerque, only 1 has a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Pima Medical Institute comes out as the most expensive ($11,907/yr) for animal care students, with Central New Mexico Community College as the lowest, reported at only $10,387/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Albuquerque |
| Albuequerque | NM | - | 1 | 4.18669 | 13 | 3.0 miles |
| Rio Rancho | NM | 85,837 | 1 | 10.6625 | 12 | 10.6 miles |
| Santa Fe | NM | 74,019 | 6 | 20.0822 | 127 | 54.1 miles |
| Grants | NM | - | 1 | 9.85236 | 40 | 69.7 miles |