diff --git a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/operations.go b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/operations.go
index eb476b2d8..6a033f224 100644
--- a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/operations.go
+++ b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/operations.go
@@ -345,6 +345,12 @@ func collectOrphanCandidates(
 	for mle := range meta.PreviousFiles() {
 		referencedFiles[mle.MetadataFile] = struct{}{}
 	}
+	for sf := range meta.Statistics() {
+		referencedFiles[sf.StatisticsPath] = struct{}{}
+	}
+	for psf := range meta.PartitionStatistics() {
+		referencedFiles[psf.StatisticsPath] = struct{}{}
+	}
 
 	referencedFilerPaths := make(map[string]struct{}, len(referencedFiles))
 	for ref := range referencedFiles {
diff --git a/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/statistics_orphans_test.go b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/statistics_orphans_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6b56268c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/weed/worker/tasks/iceberg/statistics_orphans_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,78 @@
+package iceberg
+
+import (
+	"context"
+	"encoding/json"
+	"path"
+	"testing"
+	"time"
+
+	"github.com/apache/iceberg-go/table"
+	"github.com/seaweedfs/seaweedfs/weed/s3api/s3tables"
+	"github.com/seaweedfs/seaweedfs/weed/s3api/s3tables/s3tablestest"
+)
+
+// Statistics files (Puffin, partition statistics) live under metadata/ and are
+// referenced from the table metadata's "statistics" and "partition-statistics"
+// lists, not from any snapshot's manifests. Orphan cleanup must count them as
+// referenced, or it deletes a table's statistics once they pass the window.
+func TestOrphanCleanupKeepsStatisticsFiles(t *testing.T) {
+	const bucket, namespace, tbl = "stats-bucket", "ns", "tbl"
+	tableRef := func(name string) string {
+		return "s3://" + bucket + "/" + namespace + "/" + tbl + "/metadata/" + name
+	}
+
+	base := buildTestMetadata(t, nil, nil, 0, nil, nil, nil)
+	raw, err := json.Marshal(base)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("marshal metadata: %v", err)
+	}
+	var doc map[string]any
+	if err := json.Unmarshal(raw, &doc); err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("unmarshal metadata: %v", err)
+	}
+	doc["statistics"] = []any{map[string]any{
+		"snapshot-id": 1, "statistics-path": tableRef("stats-1.puffin"),
+		"file-size-in-bytes": 10, "file-footer-size-in-bytes": 5, "blob-metadata": []any{},
+	}}
+	doc["partition-statistics"] = []any{map[string]any{
+		"snapshot-id": 1, "statistics-path": tableRef("partition-stats-1.parquet"),
+		"file-size-in-bytes": 10,
+	}}
+	raw, err = json.Marshal(doc)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("marshal metadata with statistics: %v", err)
+	}
+	meta, err := table.ParseMetadataBytes(raw)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("parse metadata with statistics: %v", err)
+	}
+
+	filer := s3tablestest.Start(t)
+	tablePath := s3tables.GetTablePath(bucket, namespace, tbl)
+	metaDir := path.Join(tablePath, "metadata")
+	old := time.Now().Add(-30 * 24 * time.Hour)
+	filer.Put(tablePath, "metadata", nil)
+	filer.PutFile(metaDir, "v1.metadata.json", old)
+	filer.PutFile(metaDir, "stats-1.puffin", old)
+	filer.PutFile(metaDir, "partition-stats-1.parquet", old)
+	filer.PutFile(metaDir, "stats-0.puffin", old) // superseded: a real orphan
+
+	candidates, err := collectOrphanCandidates(context.Background(), filer.Client, bucket, path.Join(namespace, tbl),
+		meta, "v1.metadata.json", 1)
+	if err != nil {
+		t.Fatalf("collect orphan candidates: %v", err)
+	}
+	doomed := map[string]bool{}
+	for _, c := range candidates {
+		doomed[c.Entry.Name] = true
+	}
+	if !doomed["stats-0.puffin"] {
+		t.Fatalf("expected the unreferenced stats-0.puffin to be an orphan, got %v", doomed)
+	}
+	for _, name := range []string{"stats-1.puffin", "partition-stats-1.parquet", "v1.metadata.json"} {
+		if doomed[name] {
+			t.Errorf("%s is referenced by the table metadata and must not be an orphan", name)
+		}
+	}
+}