Of the Bostons whose literacy was recorded, 78.9% could both read and write, 8.5% could read but not write, and 12.7% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 81.4% reading and writing against 76.4% 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.