Since its foundation in 1890, the Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv has been a journal with both a theoretical and a practical orientation. The questions and objects of research of theoretical but also of practical statistics have changed considerably since then. Statistical theory has become predominantly methodology on a probabilistic basis, and the material questions are nowadays directed not only to the description of real facts, but also to a large extent the explanation and prognosis of developments and interrelationships.

Nevertheless, the tradition of the Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv has been preserved until today; namely, to be a forum for the further development of statistics and to maintain a balance between topics of pure theory, applied theory, its practical use, and the interpretation of results. Among the application-related contributions, questions of obtaining and evaluating economic and social statistical data continue to occupy a large space. Another focus is on methods of technical statistics.

In order to do justice to this broad spectrum, the Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv was divided into two journals as of 2007, the AStA – Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv and the AStA – Advances in Statistical Analysis. They now jointly continue the tradition of the original journal.

On the occasion of the journal’s 100th anniversary in 1991, an index volume was published containing a bibliographic listing of all articles published up to that time. It also contains information on the history of the Allgemeines Statistisches Archiv and the German Statistical Society. A selection of the data is accessible as an online register.