Of the Melligans whose literacy was recorded, 68.9% could both read and write, 4.4% could read but not write, and 26.7% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 71.4% reading and writing against 66.7% 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.