Of the O'Donnels whose literacy was recorded, 55.9% could both read and write, 6.8% could read but not write, and 37.3% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 65.4% reading and writing against 48.5% 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.