This collection of articles was chosen from among those used in courses of study in statistical methods that were given in the Public Policy Program of the Kennedy School of Government and in the Law School at Harvard. These articles provide real life material for topics in public policy and statistics. They illustrate frequent uses of statistics in public policy and present the diversity of statistical tools employed in policy studies. This collection is organized into six parts: Part 1 introduces the collection and contains an essay on the appreciation of the use of statistics in critically examining the contributions of the Federal Government's statistics and statisticians. Part 2 supplies examples of the application of exploratory data analysis to some policy-relevant sets of data. Part 3 shows a variety of statistical tools and deals with different policy debates. Part 4 discusses methods of statistical analysis that are particularly appropriate for policy works. Part 5 applies decision analysis to a policy choice and presents articles that bear on the usefulness of statistics as an aid in decisionmaking. Part 6 examines a number of issues related to the effective and appropriate use of statistics and probability in such public arenas as the courts and regulatory hearings. This collection of articles should be useful and instructive to those with an interest in public policy or statistics or both. Table, figures, references, and notes