Of the Spellmans whose literacy was recorded, 72.7% could both read and write, 6.4% could read but not write, and 20.9% could do neither. Men came out slightly ahead, 76.6% reading and writing against 68.8% 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.