Appalachian commission's annual update of county economic status shows 15 more lower-status counties

The Appalachian Regional Commission has issued its annual categorization of the economic status of the 423 counties Congress has told it to serve. The new list and map have more lower-status counties, which the federal agency blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic.

The categories and their numbers are distressed (82 counties), at risk (109), transitional (218), competitive (10) and attainment (4). The number of distresses counties increased by one, and 14 counties moved from transitional to at-risk. ARC says it uses the designations to help it determine "match rates for projects and target investments to distressed areas." Its website adds that census tracts within distressed counties can be labeled distressed if they have have a median family income two-thirds or less of the U.S. average and a poverty rate at least half again as much as the U.S. average.