noun
BAD : This view is supported by statistic published in 1985.
GOOD : This view is supported by statistics published in 1985.
◆◆◆
statistic (singular) refers to one piece of data: 'This terrible crime will soon become nothing more than a statistic in police records.'
statistics (plural) refers to a set of data: 'Statistics show that the population has almost doubled in the last twenty years.'