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By Jon Styf

The Center Square

Tennessee now has nine counties that are considered distressed, up one from a year ago and now including Haywood County, the home of Ford’s Blue Oval City project.

A distressed county is one among the 10% most economically distressed in the nation, as determined by the Appalachian Regional Commission.

This year, Clay dropped off the list while Haywood and Grundy were added to the list.

The ARC factors in a three-year rate of unemployment rate, per capita market income and poverty rate.

Last year, Gov. Bill Lee’s staff announced the state’s drop to eight distressed counties after having 16 in 2019.

This year, Lee spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson was asked about the change and told Tennessee Lookout that ““what happens in rural Tennessee matters to all of Tennessee, and as our state experiences unprecedented economic growth and job creation, we’ll continue our work to prioritize rural communities so that Tennesseans in every county can thrive.”

Tennessee now has 31 counties considered at-risk after having 28 a year ago. Tennessee has 95 counties.