Appalachian Economics

The ARC classifies 27.2 percent of North Appalachian counties as distressed but only 9.6 percent of South Appalachian counties that way. 

Over 70 percent of counties in South Appalachia have grown in population since the 2020 Census. North Appalachia lost 17,131 people in total, while South Appalachia gained 127,585. 

The difference in net in-migration is even more stark. While the North posted positive net domestic in-migration of 22,563, the South tallied almost 300,000—13 times as high. 

The story is similar for jobs, with the North losing 227,049 positions since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, while the South actually exceeded its pre-Covid levels by 66,377. 

In other words, much of South Appalachia is seeing a population inflow and is growing in both population and employment.

From here.

The Mason-Dixon line is used to divide North Appalachia from South Appalachia. North Appalachia is more dependent upon coal mining and fossil fuels, and some of it has a rust belt economy, among other differences.