The region includes the entire state of West Virginia, Kentucky's easternmost counties and smaller portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Tennessee. It contains the nation's greatest natural resources. It has high quality coal, oil, gas, timber and water. It is also home to some of the nations poorest, most powerless and exploited people.
Unemployment rates are always disproportionately high.
The poverty rate is one of the highest in the nation. The economy is based on extracting non-renewable resources and exporting these outside the region. The plight of the people of the Central Appalachian Mountains was drawn to the nation's attention by John F. Kennedy while he was campaigning for President. Initially, the region drawing all the attention was the Central Appalachian coal producing counties. However, state and congressional leaders from other states scampered to insure that they could include their jurisdictions into this area that was certain to receive special federal initiatives.