Of the Shortens whose literacy was recorded, 86.1% could both read and write, 2.5% could read but not write, and 11.4% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 88.1% reading and writing against 84.4% 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.