Of the Sheppards whose literacy was recorded, 78.1% could both read and write, 4.3% could read but not write, and 17.5% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 79.4% reading and writing against 76.9% 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.