Statistics of Number Fields and Function Fields

We discuss some problems of arithmetic distribution, including conjectures of Cohen-Lenstra, Malle, and Bhargava; we explain how such conjectures can be heuristically understood for function fields over finite fields, and discuss a general approach to their proof in the function field context based on the topology of Hurwitz spaces. This approach also suggests that the Schur multiplier plays a role in such questions over number fields.