Final answer:
Benford's Law is a statistical analysis technique that describes the expected frequency distribution of first digits in many real-world numerical datasets, showing lower digits appear more frequently as the leading digit.
Step-by-step explanation:
Benford's Law, also known as the First-Digit Law, is an analysis technique used in statistics that predicts the frequency distribution of the first digits in numerical data sets. According to this law, smaller digits appear as the first digit more often than larger digits. Specifically, the number 1 appears as the first digit about 30% of the time, while higher numbers such as 9 appear as the first digit less than 5% of the time. The law applies to various data sets that span several orders of magnitude, such as population numbers, accounting data, or street addresses. Though it might seem counterintuitive at first, this distribution has been empirically observed across many real-world datasets and is often used to detect anomalies or potential fraud in large sets of numerical data. If the numbers do not conform to Benford's distribution, it may suggest that the data has been manipulated or does not come from a naturally occurring process.