Of the Whistons whose literacy was recorded, 72.7% could both read and write, 1.1% could read but not write, and 25% could do neither. Women came out slightly ahead, 73.8% reading and writing against 71.7% 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.