The term Appalachia is used to refer to regions associated with the mountain range. It refers to the mountain range and the hills and plateau region around it. The term is often used to refer to areas in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. These areas usually include all of West Virginia and parts of the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina, and sometimes extending as far south as northern Georgia and western South Carolina, as far north as Pennsylvania, and as far west as southeastern Ohio. In 1965 the United States Congress created an Appalachian Regional Commission to include these areas and more, as far west as Mississippi.