Socioeconomic Review of Appalachia Then and Now: An Update of the “Realities of Deprivation” Reported to the President in 1964


Author(s): Andrew Isserman
Author Organization(s): West Virginia University

In 1964, a report by the the President’s Appalachian Regional Commission Report stated that Appalachia could be characterized as “. . . a region apart—geographically and statistically.” This report reassesses that finding. A reexamination of the data presents an update of Appalachia’s socioeconomic status in 1995, using a series of statistics and maps to compare the Appalachian Region with the rest of the nation’s metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.