Over the past weekend, WZQZ News reported that the Appalachian Regional Commission has released a report listing Chattooga County as a “distressed” county within the region.  That designation makes Chattooga County the only Appalachian County in Georgia to receive the designation.

There are thirty-seven counties in the Peach State that are considered part of the Appalachian Region.  The counties stretch from Rabun County in the far northeast corner of the state over to Dade County in the Northwest and down to Heard County in west-central Georgia.

Chattooga’s classification as “distressed” makes it eligible for an 80% match from the federal agency. The classification is applied to areas with a median income of no more than 67% of the U.S. average and a poverty rate of 150% or more of the national average.

While Chattooga is the only county as a whole to be considered “distressed” there are seven different census tracts in neighboring Floyd County that are designated as distressed by the latest report.  There are also seven census tracts in Walker County that are considered “distressed” as well.

The designations come from an annual status report by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The analysis compares each of the ARC’s 423 counties with national averages for unemployment rates, per capita income and poverty rates over the previous three-year period.