Of the McSherrys whose literacy was recorded, 78.3% could both read and write, 4.5% could read but not write, and 17.1% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 81.3% reading and writing against 75.6% 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.