The entity for which the required statistics are compiled. It may be an observation unit in which information is received and statistics are compiled or an analytical unit, which statisticians create by splitting or combining observation units with the help of estimations or imputations in order to supply more detailed and/or homogeneous data than would otherwise be possible.

European business statistics uses four statistical units:
- Enterprise,
- Kind-of-activity Unit,
- Local-kind-of-activity Unit,
- Local unit.

• Unit under observation
• Absolute cumulative numbers
• Relative numbers
• Sampling frame for statistical surveys
• Measurement
• Random choice of the sample
• Sampling scheme
• Arithmetic mean