Service Area
The TCRI serves the 14 counties in the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, as well as 8 additional contiguous rural counties. The Appalachian Regional Commission (2021) classifies four of these counties as distressed, eight as at-risk, and ten as transitional. None of the service region’s counties are classified as attainment or competitive. The Upper Cumberland service region has a population of over 342,000 with a combined poverty rate of 14.4%. These rural counties have not recovered from the economic downturn of 2008 and find themselves on the losing end of globalization and economic transition. Counties in gold are considered distressed. Those in light purple are at-risk, and the dark purple counties represent the others additionally served by the TCRI.
Our primary focus is on the 14 counties in the Upper Cumberland region:
- Cannon
- Clay
- Cumberland
- DeKalb
- Fentress
- Jackson
- Macon
- Overton
- Pickett
- Putnam
- Smith
- Van Buren
- Warren
- White
