This report examines the causes and effects of Appalachian poverty, focusing on education, unemployment, social services, and economic development. The data in the report were extracted from the 1980 U.S. Census. Although there has been a steady decline in Appalachian poverty rates since the landmark 1964 declaration of a War on Poverty, statistics show the picture of a region that remains much poorer than the rest of the nation. In 1980, prior to a major recession, the Central Appalachian Subregion had a poverty rate that was nearly double the national average. High numbers of people live just above the poverty line and are thus highly vulnerable to economic disruption. Some improvements can be attributed to expanded public spending, but persistent poverty rates reflect a continuously isolated, inaccessible, undiversified, and dependent economy. In such conditions, there is little incentive for individual effort toward advancement. Education, for example, offers little reward in an area with few jobs. The persistence of poverty indicates the need for programs whose intervention strategies are designed to target isolated rural economies and their vulnerable populations. Programs of the past have sometimes enjoyed limited success and, in other instances, have failed spectacularly. This report concludes that, if the future is to learn from the past, rural economic strategies should be based on a realistic appreciation of the needs and abilities of rural residents. In the meantime, the costs of failure to find solutions to poverty remain high for individuals and their communities. This report includes a section on the measurement of poverty with an emphasis on the Orshansky method. Ten charts and graphs offer detailed demographic information. (TES)