Appalachia at the Millennium: An Overview of Results from Census 2000

Since a landmark 1964 report, the region known as Appalachia has been characterized mostly by its economic hardship and its geographic isolation. However, the 13-state area is far from homogeneous, containing pockets of rural isolation and parts of fast-growing metropolitan areas. Using data from the decennial census, this report provides a demographic, economic, and social portrait in the 410-county Appalachian Region at the dawn of the 21st century. The new century found a region that grew 9 percent during the 1990s, and was approaching levels of the rest of country in some aspects (while continuing to lag behind in others). Moreover, these developments had some wideranging variations among Appalachia's sub-regions and economic development categories.