Report: Appalachia, W.Va. Continue Economic Improvement  

A new federal report indicates Appalachia and West Virginia are continuing to improve economically.  

Each year the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) compares 423 counties across the Appalachian region to the national average, ranking them from distressed to attainment.  

Overall, 76 counties are ranked as distressed, the second lowest level recorded in the 21 years of ARC’s index system.   

The report shows West Virginia has 13 counties that rank as distressed, the most economically depressed counties that rank in the worst 10% of the nation’s counties.   

That is up from a low last year of 11 counties, but continues a downward trend from a recent high of 18 counties in recent years after the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Rankings are determined by median income, poverty rate and the three-year average unemployment rate.  

ARC is an economic development partnership entity of the federal government and 13 state governments and has been computing its index-based county economic classification annually since 2007.