About the Appalachian Regional Commission
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC, the Commission) is a regional economic development agency representing a unique partnership of federal, state, and
local governments. Established by an act of Congress in 1965, the Commission is composed of the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chair, who is
appointed by the president. To align with the Commission’s Strategic Investment Plan, the Appalachian governors draw up four- or five-year state Appalachian
plans and annual state strategies to signal their state-level investment priorities. Local participation is provided through multi-county local development districts (LDDs)
with support from community, business, and civic leaders. Seventy-four LDDs cover all 423 counties in the Appalachian Region (the Region).
Key language from Appalachia Envisioned
Job creation, labor force participation, and incomes
Job creation is increasing more slowly in the Region than in the nation as a whole. The number of jobs in the nation has jumped 79% since 1980, while the number of jobs in Appalachia has increased only 49% over the same time period. The Region has been disproportionately affected by the loss of relatively high-wage coal mining jobs. Seventy-seven percent of the coal mining jobs lost in the United States between 2011 and 2019 were in the Appalachian Region—a loss of 30,003 jobs. Appalachian counties in Kentucky and West Virginia bore the brunt of these losses. These counties lost 19,698 direct mining jobs—66% of the mining jobs lost in the entire Appalachian Region. Appalachia has also disproportionately been impacted by the loss of its manufacturing base. Between 2000–2019, Appalachia had a net loss of 555,000 manufacturing jobs (a 29% decline), while the U.S. lost around 4.2 million (a 24% decline). In addition, the Region’s labor force participation rate remains low (73.3% in the Region among civilians ages 25–64, compared with 77.9% nationally) and per capita market income in Appalachia was over 28% lower than the nation in 2019.
Post secondary education attainment rates
While overall educational attainment rates in the Region have improved over the past several decades, Appalachia continues to fall behind the nation on this measure. Over the 2015–2019 period, the share of adults with a bachelor’s degree or more was seven percentage points lower in Appalachia than in the nation as a whole; and in 294 Appalachian counties, fewer than one in five residents aged 25 and over were graduates of a four-year college or university.
Substance use disorder rates and health status
The nation’s substance use disorder crisis continues to
disproportionately impact Appalachia. By 2018, the overdose-related mortality rate for the Region’s 25- to 54- year-old age group – those in their prime working years –was 55% higher than for the same age group in the country’s non-Appalachian areas. Similarly, the health status of the Region’s residents continues to decline: The all-cause mortality rate is 33% higher in Appalachia than in the rest of the country, and the Region has higher rates of mortality due to many of the leading causes of death in the U.S., including cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), injury, stroke, and
diabetes. Rural and economically distressed counties
generally report the highest rates in the Region.
How the ARC StrategiC Plan relates to STC's 2025 CEDS Update
The ARC plan and STC’s 2025 CEDS must achieve close alignment, to ensure STC’s efforts are consistent with our major funding organizations. Consistency with the ARC strategic plan will also ensure significant projects from STC’s region are fund-able by the ARC. Workforce, health, Substance Abuse Disorder, community development, infrastructure, and capacity building projects could all be supported by the ARC.