Statistics is a social science that studies the quantitative side of mass social phenomena in close connection with their qualitative side. It is based on the principles and categories (laws) of philosophy, political economy, mathematics and some other branches of fundamental science, reveals and analyzes the quantitative changes in specific mass social phenomena and processes, clarifying and generalizing, at the same time, the patterns that appear in them. Statistical science develops techniques for quantitative analysis of these social phenomena, which together form a statistical methodology used, in turn, by many other sciences.

Statistics is also called a branch of practical activity in any state aimed at collecting, processing, analyzing and publishing massive data on phenomena and processes in public life, i.e. the activities of a certain group of specialists and specialized bodies in this area, as well as any other state and non-state organizations leading it in order to learn, analyze and apply to make the necessary decisions. And by statistics they mean a set of digital information that characterizes any phenomenon of social life. The principle applies here: “numbers are the most reliable way to generalize and evaluate reality” (in conjunction with the mathematical law of “large numbers”).

The most important principle of organizing statistical activity is also the ability to organize it on a scientific basis, based primarily on economic theory, on the objective economic laws of the development of society. Statistical science, in turn, should be closely connected with the practical activities of specialists and the bodies that carry them out.