Of the Pickerings whose literacy was recorded, 71.2% could both read and write, 7.1% could read but not write, and 21.7% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 74.4% reading and writing against 68.5% 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.