Census-designated place · Pima County, Arizona

Ajo, Arizona

Ajo is a census-designated place in Pima County, Arizona, part of the Tucson, AZ metro area. It has 3,107 residents. Ajo, Arizona has a quality-of-life score of 28 out of 100 (low), ranking #11,191 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Arizona it ranks #82 of 207 cities and towns. It ranks best on comfortable days (high), preventable hospital stays (low) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) (low). It ranks worst on hot days (high), drug overdose deaths (high) and uninsured residents (under 65) (high).

28Low

Quality-of-life score: #11,191 of 15,651 cities and towns
Arizona: #82 of 207 in AZ
Population: 3,107 (2020-2024)
Land area: 33 mi²
Density: 93.2 /mi²
FIPS code: 0400870

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety17#13,037/15,637
Economy35#10,210/15,631
Housing62#5,692/14,977
Health47#8,337/15,609
Healthcare51#7,727/15,650
Environment28#11,058/15,453
Education27#11,497/15,649
Infrastructure39#9,526/15,650
Community46#8,504/15,651
Leisure & amenities27#11,490/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Ajo, Arizona ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Pima County value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Comfortable days · high34.8%
94/100Arizona 31.6%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationPima County value
Preventable hospital stays · low1,812 /100k
90/100Arizona 2,070 /100kUnited States 2,769 /100k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePima County value
Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) · low6.0 µg/m³
90/100Arizona 6.9 µg/m³United States 8.0 µg/m³2022Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyPima County value
Mammography screening · high54.0%
88/100Arizona 44.0%United States 46.0%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstitutePima County value
Home price to income ratio · low2.3×
85/100Arizona 4.9×United States 4.1×2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B25077
Distance to an airport · low12 mi
82/100Arizona 30 miUnited States 33 mi2025Federal Aviation Administration · Bureau of Transportation Statistics · U.S. Census BureauPima County value

Weaknesses

Hot days · high153 days
1/100Arizona 96 daysUnited States 42 days2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationPima County value
Drug overdose deaths · high36.4 /100k
5/100Arizona 35.9 /100kUnited States 18.4 /100kMar 2025–Feb 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataPima County value
Uninsured residents (under 65) · high24.5%
6/100Arizona 12.9%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010
Median Air Quality Index · high54
7/100Arizona 642025U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyPima County value
Grocery stores · low1.0 /10k
13/100Arizona 1.0 /10kUnited States 1.7 /10k2025U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsPima County value
Suicide rate · high22.1 /100k
14/100Arizona 20.8 /100kUnited States 14.1 /100kMay 2025–Apr 2026Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProvisional dataPima County value

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationRising
2,841 (2015-2019) → 3,107 (2020-2024)
+9.4%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
64.0% (2015-2019) → 86.6% (2020-2024)
+23 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Child poverty rateImproving
17.9% (2015-2019) → 0.0% (2020-2024)
−18 pts5 yearsCensus table B17001US 16.8% → 15.5%
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
63.4% (2015-2019) → 46.2% (2020-2024)
−17 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Unemployment rateImproving
20.9% (2015-2019) → 6.9% (2020-2024)
−14 pts5 yearsCensus table B23025US 3.7% → 4.0%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
13.8% (2015-2019) → 26.1% (2020-2024)
+12 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Ajo, Arizona improved on 3 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved3

Broadband+23 points64.0% → 86.6%
Bachelor's++12 points13.8% → 26.1%
Household income+47%$36,743 → $53,958

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 10 measures

Change of every measure of Ajo, Arizona between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.8%2015-2019	26.1%2020-2024	+12 points	Improved	94%
Broadband subscriptions	64.0%2015-2019	86.6%2020-2024	+23 points	Improved	93%
Effective property tax rate	0.51%2015-2019	0.75%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	2%
High school diploma or higher	87.0%2015-2019	84.9%2020-2024	−2.1 points	Within the margin of error	14%
Home price to income ratio	2.0×2015-2019	2.3×2020-2024	+0.3×	Within the margin of error	64%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4162015-2019	0.3912020-2024	−0.025	Within the margin of error	71%
Median household income	$36,7432015-2019	$53,9582020-2024	+47%	Improved	82%
Poverty rate	19.1%2015-2019	9.9%2020-2024	−9.2 points	Within the margin of error	92%
Rent-burdened households	63.4%2015-2019	46.2%2020-2024	−17 points	Within the margin of error	91%
Uninsured residents (under 65)	17.0%2015-2019	24.5%2020-2024	+7.5 points	Within the margin of error	5%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Ajo, Arizona five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Ajo, Arizona in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Ajo, Arizona itself moved +10.3 points in standing on average over the same 8 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

3,107 residents (±488)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

1,496 households (±211)

Ajo, Arizona
Arizona share

Under $25k22%†324
$25k–50k22%†334
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

1,496 households (±211)

Ajo, Arizona
Arizona share

Own72%1,077
Rent28%†419

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

985 workers (±229)

Ajo, Arizona
Arizona share

Drive alone68%†672
Carpool12%†115
Public transit

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Tucson, AZ

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Pima County, the county holding most of Ajo's residents.

Pima County has 21,381 employer establishments, 201 for every 10,000 residents (0.81× the US rate of 248; 0.92× Arizona's), with 341,481 paid employees at an average annual pay of $54,983. The Census Bureau also counts 82,177 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 21,381; 82,177 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 201; US 248 · Arizona 219
Paid employees: 341,481
Average annual pay: $54,983; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Pima County by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	2,158	20.3	0.97×About typical	28,860	$73,866	4,753
Restaurants and other eating places	1,656	15.5	0.85×About typical	36,585	$22,997	387
Lessors of real estate	1,409	13.2	1.07×About typical	5,188	$55,125	8,225
Specialty trade contractors	1,345	12.6	0.82×About typical	16,448	$57,209	4,948
Limited-service restaurants	810	7.6	0.95×About typical	17,465	$20,548	195
Offices of physicians	726	6.8	1.05×About typical	10,042	$108,069	932
Services to buildings and dwellings	700	6.6	0.97×About typical	6,944	$35,250	5,423
Real estate agents and brokers	691	6.5	1.33×More than typical	944	$68,213	2,963
Offices of other health practitioners	629	5.9	0.97×About typical	3,430	$46,598	2,098
Full-service restaurants	606	5.7	0.74×Fewer than typical	15,606	$26,503	123
Building equipment contractors	578	5.4	0.90×About typical	6,817	$59,165	890
Construction of buildings	556	5.2	0.69×Fewer than typical	5,829	$87,727	2,387

Rank places for an industry Open Pima County

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 1,065,239 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $279.9K of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Ajo, Arizona: $90.08 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $279.9K
Per resident: $90.08; US $1,994
Sole-source: 0.0%; US 30%
Single offer: 0.3%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

National Park Service$214.5K77%
U.S. Customs and Border Protection$33.6K12%
Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education$12.6K4.5%
Defense Information Systems Agency$12.3K4.4%
Department of the Army$6,2402.2%
Federal Acquisition Service$5570.2%

Top recipients

MCKENZIE CONSTRUCTION & SITE DEVELOPMENT LLC$204.6K73%
PRIME RIV LLC$20K7.1%
SEVEN GENERATIONS ARCHITECTURE & ENGINEERING LLC$12.6K4.5%
AT&T ENTERPRISES, LLC$12.3K4.4%
VERSAR-ARCADIS A JOINT VENTURE$6,2402.2%

Spending by fiscal year

14.9KFY2017
33.3KFY2018
36.4KFY2019
41.8MFY2020
137.7KFY2021
266.1KFY2022
7.3MFY2023
-6.5MFY2024

Top industries (NAICS)

Utility system construction · 2371$204.6K73%
Special food services · 7223$20K7.1%
Architectural, engineering, and related services · 5413$12.6K4.5%
Wired telecommunications carriers · 5171$12.3K4.4%
Remediation and other waste management services · 5629$9,8913.5%
Facilities support services · 5612$5,665

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Ajo, Arizona, so they do not add up across cities.

Ajo, Arizona's figures are part of those of Pima County, AZ ($13.1B in FY2026), never added to them: 0.0% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Ajo is mostly in Pima County.

See federal money in Pima County

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Ajo, Arizona is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Pima County48100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Tucson, AZ55

Other cities and towns in Pima County

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/0400870

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends