3. Beattyville, Kentucky
Population: 1,307
Median Household Income: $12,336
Second Kentucky town and a neighborhood covered by America’s Poorest Towns series, Beattyville is flush with drug abuse, mostly painkillers AKA hillbilly heroin. The Appalachian town has high 40% poverty rates, but it wasn’t always so. Just a few decades back, coal and oil were a big part of economic prosperity, but once those ran out or became economically unfeasible, prosperity turned into poverty. Just a few monumental buildings in Beattyville’s center now stand as reminders of once promising and charming mountain town.
