Of the McLaughlans whose literacy was recorded, 75% could both read and write, 3.8% could read but not write, and 21.2% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 88.5% reading and writing against 61.5% 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.