Tenfold increase in illegitimate babies in century since Titanic, ONS says The ONS also said that the number of marriages fell over the 100 year period, even though the population of England and Wales rose from 36 million to 62 million. While there were 274,943 marriages in 1911, there were 241,000 in 2010, the ONS said. Andrea Williams, a director at the Christian Legal Centre, said that the figures demonstrate that "we are not holding the importance of marriage in its rightful place." She said that society "flourishes" when marriage is protected and revered. If we are not careful it is a ticking time bomb as we are not respecting things that hold society together and allow it to flourish. "If we don't hold that dear then this will have massive repercussions for future generations," said Ms Williams. Anastasia de Waal, director of family and education at Civitas, the thinktank, said that the figures provide a "fascinating insight" into social change. She said: "There is a popular notion that marriage is dead. But although the figures show that there has been a decline the numbers are not that different. Where there is a big change is in the number of divorces and the number of children born out of marriage. Ms de Waal said that the figures reflect an increasing trend for couples to co-habit - rather than marry - and a greater acceptance by society of people having babies outside of marriage. She also said that the "trajectory" of people's lives has changed. Lots of people today co-habit, have children and then decide whether to marry or not marry. And those who do marry are much more likely to get divorced. People do things in a different order than they used to. We are seeing - and this is a very middle-class phenomenon - people having kids and then getting married. She said that divorce has risen so much because people's expectations of marriage have changed dramatically. People are no longer getting married in order to have children and they are getting divorced if they are not happy. Previously this was not an option. "There is a very high premium on perceptions of happiness and people have very high expectations of marriage now," she said. Given the rigid class structure of the Titanic era, she added that Rose DeWitt Bukater, the aristocratic character played by Kate Winslett in the Oscar winning 1997 Titanic film, would have been highly unlikely to break off her engagement and run off with Jack Dawson, the third-class passenger played by Leonardo Di Caprio. That would have been much less likely then. Today, it is far more acceptable than it was. There is quite a distinct change about what marriage is about," said Ms de Waal.