Of the Downses whose literacy was recorded, 79.2% could both read and write, 3.3% could read but not write, and 17.5% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 81.9% reading and writing against 76.2% of women. Bear in mind these figures include young children; the census itself only counted people aged nine and over when calculating illiteracy, on the grounds that it was unfair to label a child illiterate before they'd had a chance to learn.