Lessons Learned #547:Some SQL DB Statistics Remain Outdated While Others Are Automatically Updated
During the analysis of a SQL Server performance case, we observed an interesting statistics update pattern on a large table. Several statistics had recently been updated at different times, while a group of automatically created _WA_Sys_ statistics still showed: An older last_updated date. A high modification_counter. A row count significantly lower than the current number of rows in the table. At first glance, this could suggest that AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS was not working correctly. However, a closer review showed that this pattern can be completely consistent with the expected behavior of SQL Server. 1. Types of statistics in SQL Server SQL Server can maintain several types of statistics. Automatically created column statistics When AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS is enabled, SQL Server can automatically create a single-column statistic when the Query Optimizer needs cardinality information for a column used in a query predicate. These statistics normally use names such as: _WA_Sys_00000002_47A6D5E5 The name can be interpreted as: _WA_Sys_<column_id in hexadecimal>_<object_id in hexadecimal> For example: 00000002 hexadecimal = column_id 2 47A6D5E5 hexadecimal = table object_id The most reliable way to identify the associated column is not to decode the name manually, but to query the SQL Server catalog views: DECLARE @TableName sysname = N'dbo.CustomerTransactions'; SELECT s.stats_id, s.name AS statistics_name, sc.stats_column_id, c.column_id, c.name AS column_name, s.auto_created, s.user_created, s.no_recompute FROM sys.stats AS s INNER JOIN sys.stats_columns AS sc ON sc.object_id = s.object_id AND sc.stats_id = s.stats_id INNER JOIN sys.columns AS c ON c.object_id = sc.object_id AND c.column_id = sc.column_id WHERE s.object_id = OBJECT_ID(@TableName) AND s.name = N'_WA_Sys_00000002_47A6D5E5' ORDER BY sc.stats_column_id; Statistics associated with indexes When SQL Server creates an index, it also creates a statistics object associated with the index. For example: CREATE INDEX IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId ON dbo.CustomerTransactions(ClientId) this creates an index statistics object normally named: IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId when a statistics object corresponds to an index, its stats_id matches the index's index_id. User-created statistics Statistics can also be created explicitly: CREATE STATISTICS ST_CustomerTransactions_ClientId_Status ON dbo.CustomerTransactions ( ClientId, StatusId ); This object is identified in sys.stats with: user_created = 1 auto_created = 0 and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS applies to index statistics, automatically created single-column statistics, manually created statistics and filtered statistics. 2. Statistics are not updated together Assume that a table has these statistics: _WA_Sys_00000002_xxxxxxxx for ClientId _WA_Sys_00000003_xxxxxxxx for StatusId IX_CustomerTransactions_CreatedDate for CreatedDate PK_CustomerTransactions and TransactionId After a large data load, several or all of them could become eligible for an automatic update. However, SQL Server does not immediately update all eligible statistics. Before compiling a query, the Query Optimizer identifies the statistics that could be relevant to the query predicates and checks whether those statistics are outdated. Consider this query: SELECT TransactionId, ClientId, Amount FROM dbo.CustomerTransactions WHERE ClientId = 100; The optimizer might need a histogram on ClientId. If the corresponding statistics object is outdated and has crossed its update threshold, SQL Server may update that specific statistics object. It does not need to update unrelated statistics on: StatusId CreatedDate As a result, statistics on the same table can legitimately have different update times: PK_CustomerTransactions 2026-07-22 10:53 IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId 2026-07-22 10:50 IX_CustomerTransactions_CreatedDate 2026-07-22 10:13 _WA_Sys_00000003_47A6D5E5 2026-07-19 10:00 This pattern can be evidence of demand-driven automatic updates rather than evidence of a malfunction. 3. What does modification_counter represent? The modification_counter returned by sys.dm_db_stats_properties represents the number of modifications made to the leading statistics column since that statistics object was last updated. This definition is especially important for multicolumn statistics. For example: CREATE INDEX IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId_Status ON dbo.CustomerTransactions ( ClientId, StatusId ); The associated statistics object contains: Histogram: ClientId Density information: ClientId ClientId, StatusId The histogram and modification_counter are based on the leading column, ClientId. If only StatusId is modified: UPDATE dbo.CustomerTransactions SET StatusId = 2 WHERE TransactionId = 100; this does not have the same statistics impact as changing ClientId, because ClientId is the leading histogram column. SQL Server statistics contain only one histogram, built on the first key column. Multicolumn statistics additionally contain density information for column prefixes. 4. Why do multiple statistics sometimes have similar modification counters? This commonly happens after an insert operation. For example: INSERT INTO dbo.CustomerTransactions ( TransactionId, ClientId, StatusId, Amount, CreatedDate ) SELECT TransactionId, ClientId, StatusId, Amount, CreatedDate FROM dbo.StagingCustomerTransactions; Each inserted row introduces a value for every populated column. Consequently, multiple single-column statistics may show similar increases in their modification counters. This is particularly visible after a large ETL operation: Table rows before the load: 487,673 Rows inserted by the ETL: 515,244 Current approximate row count: 1,002,917 Several statistics could then show modification counters close to the number of inserted rows. That does not mean SQL Server must update all those statistics immediately. They become candidates for updating, but an update is normally triggered when query optimization requires them. 5. Does automatic updating apply only to _WA_Sys_ statistics? AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS applies to: Automatically created _WA_Sys statistics Index statistics Primary-key index statistics User-created statistics Each statistics object is evaluated independently. Therefore, SQL Server might update: PK_CustomerTransactions while leaving this object unchanged: _WA_Sys_00000003_47A6D5E5 The reverse is also possible. The behavior depends on which statistics are considered relevant during compilation or cached-plan validation. 6. What happens when a _WA_Sys_ statistic and an index statistic cover the same column? This is one of the most interesting scenarios. Assume SQL Server originally created: _WA_Sys_00000002_xxxxxxxx for ClientId. Later, someone creates this index: CREATE INDEX IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId ON dbo.CustomerTransactions(ClientId); The table now has two statistics objects with histograms on ClientId: _WA_Sys_00000002_xxxxxxxx and IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId Conceptually: _WA_Sys statistic Histogram on ClientId Index statistic Histogram on ClientId For a query such as: SELECT * FROM dbo.CustomerTransactions WHERE ClientId = @ClientId; the optimizer can have more than one potentially relevant statistics object. It may rely on the index statistics object rather than the older _WA_Sys_ object. In that case: IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId Updated recently _WA_Sys_00000002_xxxxxxxx Old last_updated value High modification_counter This does not necessarily mean that automatic statistics updating has failed. It can mean that the _WA_Sys_ statistic has become redundant and has not been required by recent compilations. However, this should be presented carefully: The Query Optimizer is not publicly documented as always preferring an index statistic over an equivalent _WA_Sys_ statistic. The statistics selected can depend on: Query. Predicates. Available indexes. Filtered versus unfiltered statistics. Statistics freshness. Sampling quality. Multicolumn density information. Cardinality Estimator behavior. Existing cached plans. The correct conclusion is that the scenario is possible and plausible, but the execution plan should be inspected before claiming that a specific statistics object was used. As we wrote down in multiple articles in our blog (below), identify redudant statistics is part of DBA work to avoid this situation, also, in other situations, I saw that the maintenance plan is taking too much time because we are updating statistics that we are not using or migth be duplicated. The following script identifies statistics whose leading columns overlap: DECLARE @TableName sysname = N'dbo.CustomerTransactions'; ;WITH LeadingStatisticsColumns AS ( SELECT s.object_id, s.stats_id, s.name AS statistics_name, s.auto_created, s.user_created, s.no_recompute, s.has_filter, s.filter_definition, sc.column_id, c.name AS leading_column, i.index_id, i.name AS index_name FROM sys.stats AS s INNER JOIN sys.stats_columns AS sc ON sc.object_id = s.object_id AND sc.stats_id = s.stats_id AND sc.stats_column_id = 1 INNER JOIN sys.columns AS c ON c.object_id = sc.object_id AND c.column_id = sc.column_id LEFT JOIN sys.indexes AS i ON i.object_id = s.object_id AND i.index_id = s.stats_id WHERE s.object_id = OBJECT_ID(@TableName) ) SELECT leading_column, statistics_name, CASE WHEN index_id IS NOT NULL THEN N'INDEX STATISTICS' WHEN auto_created = 1 THEN N'AUTO-CREATED _WA_SYS' WHEN user_created = 1 THEN N'USER-CREATED STATISTICS' ELSE N'OTHER' END AS statistics_type, index_name, has_filter, filter_definition, no_recompute, COUNT(*) OVER ( PARTITION BY column_id ) AS statistics_on_same_leading_column FROM LeadingStatisticsColumns ORDER BY leading_column, statistics_type, statistics_name; This does not automatically mean that one object should be deleted. It only identifies an overlap. 7. Script The following example demonstrates how an automatically created statistic can coexist with a later index statistic. DROP TABLE IF EXISTS dbo.CustomerTransactions; GO CREATE TABLE dbo.CustomerTransactions ( TransactionId int NOT NULL, ClientId int NOT NULL, StatusId tinyint NOT NULL, Amount decimal(12,2) NOT NULL, CreatedDate datetime2(0) NOT NULL, CONSTRAINT PK_CustomerTransactions PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED (TransactionId) ); GO Insert sample data ;WITH Numbers AS ( SELECT TOP (200000) ROW_NUMBER() OVER ( ORDER BY (SELECT NULL) ) AS n FROM sys.all_objects AS a CROSS JOIN sys.all_objects AS b ) INSERT INTO dbo.CustomerTransactions ( TransactionId, ClientId, StatusId, Amount, CreatedDate ) SELECT n, n % 5000, n % 5, CONVERT(decimal(12,2), n % 10000), DATEADD ( minute, -(n % 100000), SYSUTCDATETIME() ) FROM Numbers; GO Ensure that automatic statistics creation and updating are enable ALTER DATABASE CURRENT SET AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS ON; GO ALTER DATABASE CURRENT SET AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS ON; GO Trigger automatic statistics creation on ClientId SELECT COUNT_BIG(*) FROM dbo.CustomerTransactions WHERE ClientId = 100 OPTION (RECOMPILE); GO Check the statistics created for ClientId SELECT s.stats_id, s.name AS statistics_name, s.auto_created, s.user_created, c.name AS column_name FROM sys.stats AS s INNER JOIN sys.stats_columns AS sc ON sc.object_id = s.object_id AND sc.stats_id = s.stats_id INNER JOIN sys.columns AS c ON c.object_id = sc.object_id AND c.column_id = sc.column_id WHERE s.object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.CustomerTransactions') AND c.name = N'ClientId' ORDER BY s.stats_id; Create an index on the same column CREATE INDEX IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId ON dbo.CustomerTransactions(ClientId); The table can now have: Modify the data significantly UPDATE dbo.CustomerTransactions SET ClientId = ClientId + 10000 WHERE TransactionId <= 100000; Review the counters again SELECT s.name AS statistics_name, sp.last_updated, sp.rows, sp.rows_sampled, sp.modification_counter FROM sys.stats AS s OUTER APPLY sys.dm_db_stats_properties ( s.object_id, s.stats_id ) AS sp WHERE s.object_id = OBJECT_ID(N'dbo.CustomerTransactions') ORDER BY s.stats_id Force a new compilation using ClientId SET STATISTICS XML ON; GO SELECT COUNT_BIG(*) FROM dbo.CustomerTransactions WHERE ClientId = 10100 OPTION (RECOMPILE); GO SET STATISTICS XML OFF; GO After the query, review: The actual execution plan XML. The StatisticsInfo elements. last_updated. modification_counter. The exact object updated is an optimizer decision and can vary by SQL Server version, build, compatibility level and query shape. The test should therefore be used to observe the behavior rather than to assume a fixed preference. Finally, as you could see SQL Server choose _WA_Sys_00000002_151102AD instead of IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId to update. In some situations, depending on execution plan, SQL Server might choose IX_CustomerTransactions_ClientId to update instead of _WA_Sys_00000002_151102AD and for this reason, doesn't mean that SQL Server is not updating the statistics it is depending that it is choosing one of them that the column is involved. My lessons learned, a statistic can be outdated without being relevant, and it can be relevant without being the only available source of cardinality information. Before interpreting an old last_updated value as an automatic statistics failure, identify the leading column, look for overlapping statistics, inspect the execution plan and determine whether there is a real estimation or performance problem. Articles: Lesson Learned #482: Identifying Potential Duplicate Statistics | Microsoft Community Hub Lesson Learned #324: Query Recompilation in Azure SQL | Microsoft Community Hub Lessons Learned #537: Copilot Prompts for Troubleshooting on Azure SQL Database | Microsoft Community Hub Lesson Learned #498:Understanding the Role of STATMAN in SQL Server and Its Resource Consumption | Microsoft Community Hub Disclaimer: The scripts included in this article are provided for demonstration and educational purposes only. They create a sample table, insert a significant number of rows, create indexes and statistics, modify data, and change automatic statistics settings in the current database. Run the complete demonstration only in a test or non-production environment. Review and adapt the database name, object names, row volume, and statements before execution. The results may vary depending on the SQL Server version, database compatibility level, existing configuration, data distribution, and workload. Always test the scripts in a representative environment before applying any conclusion or change to a production system.Lesson Learned #482: Identifying Potential Duplicate Statistics
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