Of the McElwains whose literacy was recorded, 73.9% could both read and write, 6.5% could read but not write, and 19.6% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 85.4% reading and writing against 64.7% 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.