Right now, 472 people in Tyrrell County have no health insurance, according to a recent report by NC Child, a nonprofit child advocacy organization created in 2014 and based in Raleigh.

As many as 30.3% of Tyrrell residents work in occupations that rarely offer health insurance, without which “it can be nearly impossible for people to get health care when they need it,” the report contends.

Research shows that when parents have health insurance, they have healthier babies, the parents are better able to stay healthy and care for their children, and their kids are more likely to have health coverage and use it, NC Child asserts.

The organization’s 2019 Date Card for Tyrrell County shows a child population of 1,065, with 32% of them being under age six. There were 38 live births in the county in 2017.

The 2010 federal census count in Tyrrell was 4,407 inhabitants, but a 2016 estimate shows the figure had dropped to 4,141. The county’s highest population within its present borders was 5,556 in 1940.

NC Child reports that 78.9% of women in Tyrrell received early prenatal care in 2017, up from 70.6% in 2016. Even so, 10.5% of babies were born with low birth weight in 2017 compared with 2% in 2016. And 5.3% were born pre-term in 2017 versus 3.9% in 2016.

Family economic security measures grew worse: 84.5% of children were living in poor or low-income homes here in 2017 versus 80.3% in 2016; and 27.9% of children were in households that were food insecure in 2017 compared to 26.6% in 2016.

The report states that 13 children were in foster care in Tyrrell in 2017 versus 9 in 2016; and 50 children were assessed for abuse or neglect in 2017 compared to 69 in 2016.

In the 2017-18 school year 49% of third graders scored proficient in reading, down from 52.1% in 2016-17. In 2018, 89.4% of high school students graduated on time versus 92.3% in 2017. The percent of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher was 7.6% in 2017 compared to 8.2% in 2016.

To view the Tyrrell Data Card online, go to https://www.ncchild.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/04/tyrrell-1.pdf