Statistical packet and byte counters

Presented herein are methodologies in which packets or events are selected statistically to update a counter of a network device. The updated value that is stored in the counter also reflects a number of packets (or corresponding bytes) that were not selected to update the counter. The methodology includes receiving, at a network device, a first packet followed by a second packet, probabilistically selecting the second packet to update a value of a counter of the network device while probabilistically not selecting the first packet to update the value of the counter, and updating the value of the counter to account for both the first packet and the second packet.