Of the Cowmans whose literacy was recorded, 76.2% could both read and write, 3.5% could read but not write, and 20.3% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 77.9% reading and writing against 74.6% 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.