ABSTRACT
The Appalachian region has been characterized as one of slow population growth or decline attributed to high rates of outmigration. In order to begin to assess problems of regional development and to determine appropriate strategies and policies for development, population growth trends and characteristics must be evaluated. An essay on development in the Appalachian region would be incomplete without an examination of regional income characteristics. Until spatial variations in income are known, it would be difficult to suggest an economic planning or policy strategy for regional development. At least partly responsible for the low incomes in some of the region have been the low educational levels of much of the Appalachian population. The stereotypical perceptions of Appalachia's racial, ethnolinguistic, and religious characteristics are that it is a generally homogeneous region made up almost wholly of white Protestants. In terms of racial groups, blacks accounted for the largest minority in the Appalachian region in 1980.
