Of the Becketts whose literacy was recorded, 79% could both read and write, 2.2% could read but not write, and 18.8% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 81.2% reading and writing against 77% of men. 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.