diff --git a/REQUIRE b/REQUIRE
index 92242af..447a224 100644
--- a/REQUIRE
+++ b/REQUIRE
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 julia 0.5
 Compat 0.19.0
 Reexport
+StatsBase 0.14
diff --git a/src/NullableArrays.jl b/src/NullableArrays.jl
index b189776..c41b9da 100644
--- a/src/NullableArrays.jl
+++ b/src/NullableArrays.jl
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ module NullableArrays
 using Compat
 using Compat.view
 using Reexport
+using StatsBase
 @reexport using Base.Cartesian
 
 export NullableArray,
@@ -33,5 +34,6 @@ include("reduce.jl")
 include("show.jl")
 include("subarray.jl")
 include("deprecated.jl")
+include("utils.jl")
 
 end
diff --git a/src/utils.jl b/src/utils.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc52c83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/utils.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+StatsBase.describe(X::NullableVector) = StatsBase.describe(STDOUT, X)
+
+function StatsBase.describe{T<:Real}(io::IO, X::NullableVector{T})
+    nullcount = sum(X.isnull)
+    pnull = 100nullcount/length(X)
+    if pnull != 100 # describe will fail if dropnull returns an empty vector
+        describe(io, dropnull(X))
+    else
+        println(io, "Summary Stats:")
+        println(io, "Type:           $(eltype(X))")
+    end
+    println(io, "Number Missing: $(nullcount)")
+    @printf(io, "%% Missing:      %.6f\n", pnull)
+    return
+end
+
+function StatsBase.describe(io::IO, X::NullableVector)
+    nullcount = sum(X.isnull)
+    pnull = 100nullcount/length(X)
+    println(io, "Summary Stats:")
+    println(io, "Length:         $(length(X))")
+    println(io, "Type:           $(eltype(X))")
+    println(io, "Number Unique:  $(length(unique(X)))")
+    println(io, "Number Missing: $(nullcount)")
+    @printf(io, "%% Missing:      %.6f\n", pnull)
+    return
+end
+
+function StatsBase.describe{T<:Real}(io::IO, X::AbstractVector{Nullable{T}})
+    nullcount = sum(_isnull, X)
+    pnull = 100nullcount/length(X)
+    if pnull != 100 # describe will fail if dropnull returns an empty vector
+        describe(io, dropnull(X))
+    else
+        println(io, "Summary Stats:")
+        println(io, "Type:           $(eltype(X))")
+    end
+    println(io, "Number Missing: $(nullcount)")
+    @printf(io, "%% Missing:      %.6f\n", pnull)
+    return
+end
+
+function StatsBase.describe{T<:Nullable}(io::IO, X::AbstractVector{T})
+    nullcount = sum(_isnull, X)
+    pnull = 100nullcount/length(X)
+    println(io, "Summary Stats:")
+    println(io, "Length:         $(length(X))")
+    println(io, "Type:           $(eltype(X))")
+    println(io, "Number Unique:  $(length(unique(X)))")
+    println(io, "Number Missing: $(nullcount)")
+    @printf(io, "%% Missing:      %.6f\n", pnull)
+    return
+end
diff --git a/test/runtests.jl b/test/runtests.jl
index 55132cc..d7301f0 100644
--- a/test/runtests.jl
+++ b/test/runtests.jl
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ my_tests = [
     "operators.jl",
     "subarray.jl",
     "show.jl",
+    "utils.jl"
 ]
 
 println("Running tests:")
diff --git a/test/utils.jl b/test/utils.jl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..16b7ac4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/utils.jl
@@ -0,0 +1,110 @@
+module TestUtils
+    using StatsBase
+    using Base.Test
+    using NullableArrays
+
+    @testset "describe" begin
+        io = IOBuffer()
+        describe(io, NullableArray(1:10))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Mean:           5.500000
+                                   Minimum:        1.000000
+                                   1st Quartile:   3.250000
+                                   Median:         5.500000
+                                   3rd Quartile:   7.750000
+                                   Maximum:        10.000000
+                                   Length:         10
+                                   Type:           $Int
+                                   Number Missing: 0
+                                   % Missing:      0.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, NullableArray([1, Nullable()]))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Mean:           1.000000
+                                   Minimum:        1.000000
+                                   1st Quartile:   1.000000
+                                   Median:         1.000000
+                                   3rd Quartile:   1.000000
+                                   Maximum:        1.000000
+                                   Length:         1
+                                   Type:           $Int
+                                   Number Missing: 1
+                                   % Missing:      50.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, NullableArray(["s"]))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Length:         1
+                                   Type:           Nullable{String}
+                                   Number Unique:  1
+                                   Number Missing: 0
+                                   % Missing:      0.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, NullableArray(["s", Nullable()]))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Length:         2
+                                   Type:           Nullable{String}
+                                   Number Unique:  2
+                                   Number Missing: 1
+                                   % Missing:      50.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, ["s", Nullable()])
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Length:         2
+                                   Type:           Nullable{String}
+                                   Number Unique:  2
+                                   Number Missing: 1
+                                   % Missing:      50.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, [1, Nullable()])
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Mean:           1.000000
+                                   Minimum:        1.000000
+                                   1st Quartile:   1.000000
+                                   Median:         1.000000
+                                   3rd Quartile:   1.000000
+                                   Maximum:        1.000000
+                                   Length:         1
+                                   Type:           $Int
+                                   Number Missing: 1
+                                   % Missing:      50.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, NullableArray{Any}(5))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Length:         5
+                                   Type:           Nullable{Any}
+                                   Number Unique:  1
+                                   Number Missing: 5
+                                   % Missing:      100.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, NullableArray{Float64}(5))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Type:           Nullable{Float64}
+                                   Number Missing: 5
+                                   % Missing:      100.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, fill(Nullable{String}(), 5))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Length:         5
+                                   Type:           Nullable{String}
+                                   Number Unique:  1
+                                   Number Missing: 5
+                                   % Missing:      100.000000
+                                   """
+        describe(io, fill(Nullable{Float64}(), 5))
+        @test String(take!(io)) == """
+                                   Summary Stats:
+                                   Type:           Nullable{Float64}
+                                   Number Missing: 5
+                                   % Missing:      100.000000
+                                   """
+    end
+end