Of the Mahadys whose literacy was recorded, 78% could both read and write, 10.2% could read but not write, and 11.9% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 81.8% reading and writing against 73.1% 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.