Statisticians have joined in with Titanic fever by releasing figures comparing England of 1912 to the modern day.

The Hampshire-based Office for National Statistics (ONS) published ‘The Titanic and Society – a Century of Change’ to mark the centenary of the ship’s sinking.

The ONS used the latest figures at the time of the 1912 voyage, which relate to 1911, versus those a century on to “show the changing shape of society in England and Wales”.

In 1911, the population of England and Wales was 36,070,492, a number which has almost doubled to 62,262,000 in 2010.

There has also been a drop in birth rates, with 843,505 “legitimate” and 37,633 “illegitimate” births registered in 1911 – equivalent to 24.4 per 1,000 of the population.

Fewer babies were born in 2010 than the year prior to the Titanic sailing, with 723,165 being born last year, with the crude birth rate down to 13.1 per 1,000 of population. Of these births only 384,375 were within a marriage or civil partnership, with 338,790 which would previously have been classed as “illegitimate”.

There were also more deaths in 1911 than in 2010, 527,810 to 493,242.

Despite the leap in population, there were fewer marriages in 2010 than when Titanic sailed.

In 1911, there were 274,943 marriages recorded, a rate of 15.2 persons married per 1,000 of the population at all ages. In contrast 2010 saw a provisional figure of 241,100 marriages, or 8.7 persons marrying per thousand unmarried population aged 16 and over.

In contrast, divorce has increased from 580 couples in 1911 to 119,589 in 2010, equivalent to 11.1 per every 1,000 married people.