diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index cba2ae445b698..7054c03ff9e40 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Standard library changes
   * `merge(::NamedTuple, ::NamedTuple...)` can now be used with more than 2 `NamedTuple`s ([#29259]).
   * `Future.copy!` has been moved to `Base` ([#29178]).
   * New `ncodeunits(c::Char)` method as a fast equivalent to `ncodeunits(string(c))` ([#29153]).
+  * `mean` and `var` now handles the empty case ([#29033]).
 
 Compiler/Runtime improvements
 -----------------------------
diff --git a/stdlib/Statistics/src/Statistics.jl b/stdlib/Statistics/src/Statistics.jl
index efb518f82625f..d85169e0656f4 100644
--- a/stdlib/Statistics/src/Statistics.jl
+++ b/stdlib/Statistics/src/Statistics.jl
@@ -109,6 +109,9 @@ end
 
 Compute the mean of an array over the given dimensions.
 
+!!! compat "Julia 1.1"
+    `mean` for empty arrays requires at least Julia 1.1.
+
 # Examples
 ```jldoctest
 julia> A = [1 2; 3 4]