Asteroid belt dynamics and statistics

Knowledge of the asteroid belt has leaped forward in the past decade, but some basic statistical properties of main belt asteroids remain only roughly measured and there remain many open questions about its formation and dynamical evolution. Happily, we now have a very large observational sample of asteroids, approaching one million objects, projected to increase by more than an order magnitude in the near future, holding potential for better statistics and deeper dynamical insights. I will review recent progress and discuss a selection of outstanding puzzles in asteroid belt dynamics, including the observational data pertinent to reading the dynamical record in the main asteroid belt.