Of the McTaggarts whose literacy was recorded, 69.1% could both read and write, 7.2% could read but not write, and 23.8% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 72.3% reading and writing against 66.3% of women. 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.