Introduction: comparison of dissertations in civil law with dissertations in other legal specialties, especially the criminal law cycle, inevitably leads to the idea that there are no fundamental civil law works in Russian legal science, which would be based on a statistical analysis of empirical material. Dissertation candidates often confirm or deny by one or another case or a set of them their idea, which has real or imaginary scientific value. Often, the study of a wide group of cases becomes the foundation for deep scientific conclusions, changes in the initial views of the dissertation candidate or the proposal of new hypotheses, however, in these cases, the authors’ observations are not statistical. The very statement about the insufficient use of statistical methods in civil law science requires not just a declaration with an indication of its obviousness, but direct evidence of this circumstance. Purpose: to confirm or refute the thesis about the rare use of statistical methods in civil law research, to establish the reasons for the rare use (if the thesis is confirmed). Methods: formal logical methods, statistical methods, comparative method are used. Results: the thesis about the rare use of statistical methods in civil law research is confirmed. The index of the objective conditionality of the use of statistical methods in legal research is proposed. The index shows that the role of the conditionally subjective component, that is, the established traditions of conducting scientific research in various specialties, is important, but not decisive for characterizing the methodological foundations of conducting scientific research. The choice by a particular researcher of statistical methods of conducting scientific work is determined by two main quantitative parameters of conducting research work by the entire scientific community in the relevant specialty: (a) the breadth of the sector of the analyzed legal reality, including the volume of legislation regulating public relations; (b) the number of researchers working in the relevant field.