In 1950 the university established the Department of Statistics as a sub specialty at the Faculty of Humanities. When the Faculty of Social Sciences was established in 1953, it was attached to this faculty under the title "The Department of Statistics and Demography". At the beginning, the department consisted of three teachers: Professor Roberto Bachi, who was chairman Professor, Helmut Meuzam, and Dr. Reuben Gabriel. Professor Aryeh Dvoretzky of the Mathematics Department assisted teaching probability theory. In the 60's and 70 other teachers joined the department and the department was split in 1969 to two independent departments: Department of Statistics and Department of Demography. During this period the Statistical Consulting Laboratory was also established.

In 1980 the department moved to Mount Scopus, together with the Faculty of Social Sciences. The passage was preceded by a big debate between those who supported the transition and those who supported disengagement from the Social Sciences and staying on the Edmond Safra Campus. In order to maintain a presence in the natural sciences the department taught its foundation courses in parallel on Mount Scopus and on the Edmond Safra. The scientific proximity of Statistics and Data Science to the different areas of mathematics and natural sciences in general, and particularly in Computer Science, remains pivotal until today.