Of the Muldrews whose literacy was recorded, 86.4% could both read and write, 1.7% could read but not write, and 11.9% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 89.7% reading and writing against 83.3% 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.