A new report by the federal Appalachian Regional Commission examines the economic health of every county in Appalachia, and finds that all but two of the Pennsylvania counties in the region are in the “transitional” category, which means they rank between the best 25 percent and the worst 25 percent in America. Indiana County is one of those transitional counties.
Fifty-two of the state’s 67 counties are in the Appalachian region, with the only ones not in it located in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania. Except for Allegheny County, which is in the top 25 percent and Fayette County, which is in the bottom, all of the counties are in the transitional category. The data is from 2008 through 2016, so the economic improvements of the last three years are not taken into account.
A look inside Indiana County’s numbers shows per capita income peaking in 2013 at $39,014 but falling each year after to 2016’s $35,482. The three-year average unemployment rate from 2015 through 2017 was 6.5 percent. As of April of this year, it’s at 4.1 percent. The report measured the percentage of residents living under the poverty rate at 16.6 percent.
One other important note about Indiana County: three townships, North Mahoning, Canoe, and Banks, are rated as “distressed”.
There are 420 counties in Appalachia, which includes portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and all of West Virginia.
