Adding the "action=raw" parameter to the URL for [[Special:Statistics]] should return a plain text representation. Instead it returns the full-blown special page, navigation and all. Using the non-rewritten /w/index.php URL doesn't work either.
The only workaround is to query the API:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=statistics
However, plenty of tools -- including the one used to update [[m:List of Wikipedias]] and friends -- use the raw statistics page somehow or another.
Version: 1.17.x
Severity: normal
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Statistics?action=raw