Of the McDougalls whose literacy was recorded, 73.2% could both read and write, 3.9% could read but not write, and 22.8% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 77.3% reading and writing against 68.9% 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.