Of the McCreeshes whose literacy was recorded, 71.6% could both read and write, 5.4% could read but not write, and 23.1% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 73.6% reading and writing against 69.5% 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.