As a child in her country home Florence Nightingale was, according to her sister, often to be found deep in the study of mathematics. When she was seventeen the registration of births, deaths and marriages was introduced and social statistics soon became a popular subject for educated conversation. The young Florence Nightingale expressed her interest by compiling the statistics of her travels, recording distances travelled and the times of arrival and departure.

In the early 1850s while Florence Nightingale was experiencing difficulties with her family over her choice of career as a nurse, she was eager to obtain all available statistical information on hospitals and public health. Her biographer, Woodham-Smith, remarked upon the positively reviving effect which reading statistics had on Florence Nightingale, they were at times the only point of contact with the world which interested her most, and even before the Crimean War she had trained her mind to envisage the harsh realities which lay behind the tables of hospital statistics.

To a great extent the Royal Commission which the government introduced in 1858 was driven by Florence Nightingale's own enthusiasm and hard work. The epitome of Florence Nightingale's contribution was the polar area chart traditionally (but wrongly) referred to as her coxcombs. It should not be forgotten that Florence Nightingale was ably supported by Dr William Farr, the pre-eminent medical statistician of the day, who helped her to refine the series of charts on which her reputation as a statistician is mainly built. One of the many benefits of the Royal Commission was the reorganisation of Army statistics which were recognised as among the best in Europe.

In 1858 Florence Nightingale was elected the first female member of the Statistical Society and she also became an honorary member of the American Statistical Association.

Florence Nightingale is still relevant to statistics today. She is often quoted with regard to "healthcare auditing" and "quality management". She is regarded as a pioneer of epidemiological methods for her use of public health statistics. Although she was enthusiastic about the far reaching application of statistics she was well aware of how data could be manipulated. All this is a far cry from the romantic image of the "Lady with the Lamp" which people continue to associate with Florence Nightingale