Calendar Year



Access in Appalachia North Carolina DOT – Pilot Study

This report, commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and led by the North Carolina Department of Transportation, explores transportation accessibility within North Carolina. Building upon the foundational insights provided by ARC’s Access in Appalachia report of 2020, this report provided an opportunity to measure differences in accessibility across…
Report


ARISE Program Evaluation Annual Report 2024

This report is the first in a series of annual evaluation reports for ARC’s Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies (ARISE). ARISE is a multi-state initiative that aims to drive large-scale, regional economic transformation through collaborative projects. Based on a combination of project-level inquiry with initiative-level analysis, key findings for ARISE’s…
Report


Coal Production and Employment in the Appalachian Region, 2024

This report analyzes coal production and employment data from 2000 to 2023, with a focus on how trends in Appalachia compare to those elsewhere in the country. Variation within the region is also examined. For Appalachia as a whole, despite some slight increases over the past few years, coal production…
Report


Appalachian Regional Truck Parking Study

The objective of this research report on truck parking in Appalachia, commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and completed by CPCS Transcom Inc., was to: 1) bring together the best available data and insights from existing state-level efforts and complete new research into an integrated regional assessment of truck…
Report


The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey

This study examines state- and county-level data for the 13 Appalachian states from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey (ACS) and from U.S. Census Bureau population estimates on topics including population, age, race and ethnicity, housing occupancy and tenure, education, labor force, employment and unemployment, income and poverty, health insurance coverage,…
Report


Evaluation of ARC’s Business Development Grants Closed Between 2017-2021

This report presents findings from an evaluation of ARC’s business development projects that closed between 2017 and 2021, representing 220 grants and nearly $75 million of ARC investment. The evaluation found that ARC’s business development grants closed during that timeframe led to improvements for nearly 11,000 businesses and facilitated…
Report


Food Insecurity in the Appalachian Region

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of food insecurity dynamics in Appalachia—primarily through analysis of datasets from Feeding America, the American Community Survey (ACS), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). It highlights the realities, risks, and opportunities related to food insecurity in the region. The report also offers case…
Report


Coal Production and Employment in Appalachia, 2023

The coal industry—both in Appalachia and in the United States as a whole—has undergone a severe downturn over the last decade as demand for coal has fallen across the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated recession weighed down on coal production even more. With data through 2022, this report…
Report


Appalachian Diseases of Despair, 2023

This study analyzes the impact of diseases of despair on mortality within the Appalachian Region, focusing on mortality from three main causes: alcohol, prescription drug, and illegal drug overdose; suicide; and alcoholic liver disease/cirrhosis of the liver. It includes data through 2021 and serves as an update to previous ARC…
Report


Private-Sector Employment in Appalachia

These state-level reports offer a glimpse at private-sector employment throughout the Appalachian Region. Each report, focusing on the Appalachian portions of the states, includes employment data for 91 industries, allowing readers to see which industries account for the largest percentages of total employment. The reports also include variables measuring recent…
Report


Network Appalachia: Freight, Trade, and Economic Development

This research report, commissioned by the Appalachian Regional Commission’s Network Appalachia multimodal transportation advisory group, provides an assessment of the freight network in Appalachia and the global context that surrounds it. This report is an update of the 2010 Network Appalachia: Access to Global Opportunity report and maps freight network…
Report


Evaluation of ARC’s INSPIRE Initiative

The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Center for Rural Health Research, in collaboration with the ETSU Addiction Science Center, conducted an evaluation of the INSPIRE Initiative on behalf of ARC in 2022-2023. The evaluation was designed to advance understanding of the accessibility of the application process, implementation successes and…
Report


Appalachian Diseases of Despair, 2022

This study analyzed the impact of diseases of despair on mortality within the Appalachian Region, focusing on mortality from three main causes: alcohol, prescription drug, and illegal drug overdose; suicide; and alcoholic liver disease/cirrhosis of the liver. It served as an update to ARC reports from 2017 and 2020…
Report


POWER Initiative Evaluation: The Value of POWER

Since 2015, ARC has funded 395 projects under the Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative to empower Appalachian communities to create more vibrant, diverse, and sustainable economies. To understand successes, challenges, and lessons learned through implementation, as well as to examine results of POWER projects, ARC…
Report