Of the Berminghans whose literacy was recorded, 70.3% could both read and write, 12.2% could read but not write, and 17.6% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 78.8% reading and writing against 63.4% 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.