By JAKE ZUCKERMAN
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite the optimism depicted by national economic indicators, a new study shows huge swaths of the U.S. are hurting, and West Virginia is feeling the brunt of it.
Economic Innovation Group, a think tank out of Washington, D.C., unveiled its Distressed Communities Index in late September. The study went by ZIP code, conducting a quantitative analysis to take the country’s economic temperature.
Comparatively, West Virginia has the third-highest percentage of a state’s population living in an economically distressed community, the lowest percentage of a state’s population living in an economically prosperous community and the seventh-highest percentage of ZIP codes within the state that are faring worse economically than they did in 2000.
“America’s elite ZIP codes are home to a spectacular degree of growth and prosperity — hubs of innovation and progress seemingly immune to the concerns over automation, globalization, or lack of upward mobility that pervade national headlines,” the study reads. “However, outside of those top communities, economic well-being is often tenuous at best. And, at worst, millions of Americans are stuck in places where what little economic stability exists is quickly eroding at their feet.”
The study indexed ZIP codes on a one to 100 scale, one being the least economically stressed, 100 being the most.
Some of West Virginia’s poorest counties nearly max out the study’s index scores for distressed counties, such as Mingo County at 98.1, Wyoming County at 98.2 or Lincoln County at 97.7. McDowell County scored a full 100 score on the economic distress scale.
There are a few bright spots on the map. Putnam County has a distress score of only 6.5, with 0.3 percent of its residents living in distressed ZIP codes. Additionally, Berkeley County has a distress score of 23.4, with 25 percent of its population living in a distressed ZIP code.
With the exception of the counties listed above and a few outliers in the Eastern and Northern Panhandles, most counties in the state rank in the bottom third nationally.
The study factored seven components into its index scoring: the percentage of a population aged 25 and older without a high school diploma or equivalent, housing vacancy rate, adults of prime working age who are unemployed, poverty rate, median income, changes in employment, and changes in business establishments.
Living in these economically distressed areas, the study states, can yield health consequences. Residents in distressed counties live lifespans five years shorter than people from prosperous ones. Additionally, living in the poorer areas correlates with higher mortality rates from substance abuse disorders and mental health issues, increased women’s health problems, lower employment among people with disabilities, and nearly double the per capita Medicaid spending compared to more affluent areas.
“Community economic conditions are strongly linked to individual health outcomes,” the study reads. “Struggling to find work or pay the bills can take a heavy physical and psychological toll. Matching comprehensive county-level health data to distress scores calculated at the county level lays bare massive disparities in physical well-being.”
While economically distressed communities fall under both Democratic and Republican control, the study also ranks both the most economically prosperous and most distressed congressional districts.
West Virginia’s third district is, according to the study, the sixth most distressed congressional district in the country, with 57.6 percent of its population living in a distressed ZIP code, 1.2 percent of it living in a prosperous ZIP code and a distress score of 98.9.
