PARIS, Dec 19: The theme song in the 1997 movie “Titanic” suggests the heroine’s heart “will go on and on,” but the figures show that survivors of the great liner disaster lived no longer than the general population.

Canadian researchers used a website, www.encyclopedia-titanica.org, to trace the longevity of 435 survivors of the 1912 sinking and compared their lifespan with two contemporary population groups, one from Sweden and the other from the United States.

“On average (the Titanic survivors) lived 1.7 years longer than the general population from the United States and 0.5 years longer than that of Sweden,” they report in Saturday’s issue of the weekly British Medical Journal.

“This small advantage was limited to female passengers in first and second class.”

Five women lived beyond 100, and the three survivors from the tragedy still alive are now in their 90s.

As for males from Titanic’s first class, they did not outlive their peers in the general population, despite their superior wealth and social status.

The Titanic sank in the early hours of April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg off the Newfoundland coast.—AFP