Rio Rancho (Spanish: Río Rancho) is the most populous and unaided city in Sandoval County, part of the expansive Albuquerque metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. A small portion of the city extends into northern Bernalillo County.

It is the third-largest city in New Mexico, and one of the most tersely growing. As of the 2010 census, Rio Rancho had a population of 87,521. The name Rio Rancho derives from Los Ranchos, the Spanish colonial ranches standard along the Rio Grande in the Albuquerque Basin, and throughout historic Nuevo México. There were large ranches after that in adjacent to Corrales. Since the late 20th century, it has developed as a suburb of Albuquerque.

The great majority of the territory of Rio Rancho was originally portion of the Town of Alameda Grant, which was founded by Spanish colonial settlers in 1710. It was acquired by the United States in 1848, after it defeated Mexico in the Mexican-American War. (Mexico had been independent of Spain in the past 1821.) The ranches were used for cattle and sheep.

By the upfront 20th century, much of the land allow had been on bad terms and sold to estate investment companies. Its proximity to the city of Albuquerque made it a prime Place for suburban progress in the post-World War II period. In 1961 Amrep Corporation purchased 55,000 acres (22,000 ha) and created a housing move ahead called “Rio Rancho Estates”. The first families moved into this increase in the in the future 1960s.