Chaves County is a county in New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,157. Its county seat is Roswell. Chaves County was named for Colonel Jose Francisco Chaves, a military leader there during the Civil War and later in Navajo campaigns. The county was created by the New Mexico Territorial Legislature on February 25, 1889, out of land from Lincoln County. Chaves County comprises the Roswell, New Mexico Micropolitan Statistical Area.