Albuquerque, NM (population: 535,923) has fourteen industrial design schools within a 500-mile radius of its city center. Texas Tech University, the highest ranked school in this group with an industrial design program, has a total student population of 30,049. It is the 150th highest ranked school in the USA and the 3rd highest in the state of Texas (#1 is Rice University).
Industrial Design students from Albuquerque schools who go on to become industrial designers, commercial designers, architecture designers, designers, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 65,460 people working as industrial engineering technicians alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $49,030. Also, Graphic designers make on average $47,820 per year and there are about 200,870 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Albuquerque area alone, there are 480 employed graphic designers earning an average salary of $47,220. Industrial engineering technicians in this area earn $49,190/yr and there are 140 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 0.379 out of every 1000 jobs in Albuquerque are held by industrial engineering technicians, and 1.258/1000 are held by graphic designers.
Of the 14 industrial design schools with a 500-mile radius of Albuquerque, only 8 have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, Anthem College-Phoenix comes out as the most expensive ($43,008/yr) for industrial design students, with The University of Texas at El Paso as the lowest, reported at only $5,224/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 |