Of the Eardlys whose literacy was recorded, 73.4% could both read and write, 4.7% could read but not write, and 21.9% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 77.4% reading and writing against 69.7% 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.