Say, how many people live in Appalachia anyway? Ten, twenty thousand? Can't be more than 50,000 inbred bumpkins ... right? A 2011 census puts the population at over 25 million hillbilly souls, approximately 13 percent of the U.S. population. Oh, and about 1,000,000 of them are Hispanic/Latino. So yes, there are almost certainly more than seven last names in Appalachia.
Now, it is true that the Appalachian region has seen an increase in violence and property crimes over the years, but even so, those rates are still well below the national average. What Hollywood has gotten right: the poverty. While around 21 percent of Appalachian dwellers have bachelor's or master's degrees, education and job training in the area is still directed towards failing industries, like logging or coal mining. Google and other companies have been trying to bring tech jobs to the region, but the progress there has been slow. Not because of mountain cannibals, but because infrastructure is tough to build. The hillfolk's struggle to run fiber optics through their rusty fucksheds in order to bring tech jobs to Pig Knuckle, Alabama makes for a less dramatic movie, though.
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