For the first time in living memory, families leaving Eastern Kentucky’s coalfield counties are more likely to resettle in Somerset or London than Cincinnati or Detroit. The Hillbilly Highway that once carried millions north has given way to a profoundly local pattern of movement — short hops between Kentucky counties rather than the exodus that once defined Appalachia.
The shift is visible in tax return data: Between 2021 and 2022, roughly 3 out of every 4 people who moved from Eastern Kentucky stayed within state borders. In some counties, the figure reached 90%
This represents a historic reversal. During the ’50s and ’60s, two-thirds of all moves out of Eastern Kentucky crossed state lines, bound for factory towns in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois. Today, the same proportion stays home.
The new migration map: Staying close, moving often
The latest migration statistics from the Internal Revenue Service, which tracks household addresses through annual tax filings, reveal Eastern Kentucky’s transformation from a region of exodus to one of circulation.
Analysis of the 2021-22 data for 10 Eastern Kentucky counties shows that when residents move, they overwhelmingly relocate nearby. These are intra-Kentucky migration rates for 2021-22.
- Knott County: 90% stayed in Kentucky
- Breathitt County: 90% stayed in Kentucky
- Perry County: 77% stayed in Kentucky
- Laurel County: 77% stayed in Kentucky
- Floyd County: 75% stayed in Kentucky
- Letcher County: 64% stayed in Kentucky
- Harlan County: 62% stayed in Kentucky
- Pulaski County: 63% stayed in Kentucky
- Pike County: 54% stayed in Kentucky
- Bell County: 46% stayed in Kentucky
Even Pike County — Kentucky’s easternmost and once among its most outmigration-heavy counties — now sends more than half its departing households to other Kentucky destinations rather than out of state.
Two counties actually growing
While most Eastern Kentucky counties continue to lose population, two regional hubs have reversed course entirely. Pulaski and Laurel counties, home to Somerset and London, respectively, posted net migration gains in 2021-22.
What makes Pulaski and Laurel attractive? Both sit along I-75, Kentucky’s economic spine. Both have regional medical centers — Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital in Somerset and Saint Joseph in London — that serve as major employers. Both host community college campuses, and both offer what demographers call “amenity migration” — access to retail, restaurants, broadband internet and proximity to the region without its remoteness.
Pike County tells a different story. While it posted a net loss of 187 households, the data reveals significant churn: 680 households moved in even as 867 moved out. Unlike the one-way departures of the ’50s, Pike now functions as part of a regional circulation system, drawing workers from neighboring Floyd and Letcher counties while sending residents to Lexington’s Fayette County for education and specialized employment.
Why the pattern changed
Several forces explain the shift from exodus to local circulation:
- Economic collapse of the industrial Midwest. The auto plants, tire factories and steel mills that once pulled Appalachians north have largely closed. Rust Belt cities no longer promise prosperity; many former migrants have returned as retirees or disability recipients.
- Regional health care consolidation. As rural hospitals close, residents must relocate to maintain access to medical care, but they move to the nearest hub with a hospital, not to another state.
- The power of proximity. Extended family networks remain paramount in Appalachian culture. Even struggling economically, residents prefer to stay within visiting distance of parents, siblings and grandchildren.
- Digital infrastructure. Improved broadband access in counties like Pulaski has enabled white-collar workers to live in small towns while working remotely for employers based elsewhere, a pandemic-era pattern that persists.
- I-75 and I-64. Kentucky’s two major interstates have created development corridors that capture migration within the state. Families leaving remote hollows now stop in London or Somerset rather than continuing north.
The great exodus: 1950-1980
To understand how dramatic today’s inward turn is, consider what came before.
Between 1950 and 1970, approximately 3 million people left the Appalachian region — one of the largest peacetime internal migrations in American history. Eastern Kentucky bore disproportionate losses.
These weren’t statistical abstractions. They represented schools closing, businesses shuttering, churches emptying and Main Streets dying. Graduating seniors in Eastern Kentucky schools had the choice of either college or migrating to Cincinnati or Detroit, seeking factory wages their home counties could not provide.
The routes they traveled — U.S. 23 from Pikeville north through Ashland into Ohio; U.S. 25 from southeastern Kentucky into Ohio’s industrial corridor — became known as the Hillbilly Highway. By the ’70s, Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, Akron’s North Hill, Detroit’s southern suburbs and Chicago’s Uptown housed substantial Appalachian enclaves.
The Urban Appalachian Council, founded in Cincinnati in 1974, documented the challenges these migrants faced: discrimination, culture shock, housing insecurity and persistent poverty despite steady factory work. But they kept coming because the coal economy at home was mechanizing rapidly, eliminating thousands of jobs even as production remained stable.
Return migration: ’80s reversal
Starting in the late ’80s, the flow began to slow and partially reverse. As Rust Belt factories shuttered — victims of automation, foreign competition and the North American Free Trade Agreement — laid-off workers trickled back to Kentucky.
The Urban Appalachian Council tracked this “return migration” through the ’90s. But returnees came back to retire or live on disability, not to work. Eastern Kentucky’s coal economy had continued to decline, leaving few employment opportunities for prime-age workers.
This return flow represented adjustment, not revival. The net outmigration slowed, but counties continued to lose population overall. What’s different about the 2020s pattern is that families are choosing to stay within the region even when economic conditions remain difficult.
Migration as adaptation
Today’s Eastern Kentucky migration reflects neither the desperate escape of the ’50s nor the hopeful return of the ’90s. Instead, it reveals pragmatic adaptation: families seeking health care, housing or marginally better job prospects while maintaining ties to home.
This pattern appears in the granular data. When Harlan County residents move, they most often relocate to neighboring Bell County or to Lexington. When Floyd County residents move, they head to Pike County or Fayette County. When Perry County residents leave, they resettle in nearby counties or Lexington.
The moves are incremental, one county over, perhaps two. They maintain the possibility of weekend visits, Sunday dinners and participation in family life. They preserve cultural connection, even as they seek economic improvement.
Whether this represents resilience or resignation depends on perspective. Optimists see families finding creative ways to stay rooted despite persistent poverty. Pessimists note that regional opportunities remain limited, forcing even short-distance moves as acts of survival rather than choice.
What it means
The shift from exodus to circulation has reshaped Eastern Kentucky in ways both subtle and profound:
- Regional hubs matter more. Counties with hospitals, colleges and interstate access now function as population anchors, drawing residents from surrounding counties while losing fewer to distant cities.
- Family networks persist. Unlike the mid-century generation that often severed ties with Kentucky, today’s movers remain embedded in regional social networks, maintaining connections across county lines.
- The diaspora isn’t growing. With less outmigration to Rust Belt cities, the Appalachian diaspora communities in Ohio, Michigan and Illinois are aging and shrinking. The next generation is staying home — or at least staying closer.
- Kentucky captures more of its talent. Young people leaving Pike or Harlan counties now often stop in Lexington rather than continuing to Columbus or Nashville, keeping their economic contributions within state borders.
- Return migration continues. Retirees from the diaspora continue trickling back, though at modest levels and with limited economic impact.
The unfinished story
The inward turn of Appalachian migration reflects both progress and persistent challenge. The hemorrhage has stopped, but the region hasn’t healed.
Most Eastern Kentucky counties continue to lose population, just more slowly and to closer destinations than before. Birth rates have plummeted as young women leave or delay childbearing. Natural decrease — more deaths than births — now compounds outmigration in counties like Harlan and Letcher.
But the shift toward intra-regional migration suggests something important: Eastern Kentuckians still value home. They move when necessary, but they move as little as necessary. They seek better opportunities, but they define “better” to include proximity to family, familiarity with place and maintenance of cultural connection.
The great mid-century exodus told a story of abandonment, of mountain people forced to become city people in search of survival. Today’s quieter pattern tells a different story — one of adaptation, persistence and stubborn attachment to place.
The Hillbilly Highway has become a country road in Kentucky, winding through the mountains rather than leaving them behind.
About the data
The IRS migration dataset tracks household address changes between tax filings, providing the most comprehensive county-to-county migration data available. “Returns” approximate households; “exemptions” approximate individuals. Data reflect moves between filing 2020 returns (calendar year 2021) and 2021 returns (calendar year 2022).
Historical population figures for 1950-1980 come from decennial census counts. Net migration estimates account for natural increase (births minus deaths) to isolate migration effects.
All charts created for this article use verified IRS and Census Bureau data and are available for reuse with attribution.
This article was first published on Substack.
This commentary was originally published by the Kentucky Lantern and republished here with permission.