  Most integers are composite and most univariate polynomials over a finite
field are reducible. The Prime Number Theorem and a classical result of
Gau{\ss} count the remaining ones, approximately and exactly.
  For polynomials in two or more variables, the situation changes dramatically.
Most multivariate polynomials are irreducible. This survey presents counting
results for some special classes of multivariate polynomials over a finite
field, namely the the reducible ones, the s-powerful ones (divisible by the
s-th power of a nonconstant polynomial), the relatively irreducible ones
(irreducible but reducible over an extension field), the decomposable ones, and
also for reducible space curves. These come as exact formulas and as
approximations with relative errors that essentially decrease exponentially in
the input size.
  Furthermore, a univariate polynomial f is decomposable if f = g o h for some
nonlinear polynomials g and h. It is intuitively clear that the decomposable
polynomials form a small minority among all polynomials. The tame case, where
the characteristic p of Fq does not divide n = deg f, is fairly
well-understood, and we obtain closely matching upper and lower bounds on the
number of decomposable polynomials. In the wild case, where p does divide n,
the bounds are less satisfactory, in particular when p is the smallest prime
divisor of n and divides n exactly twice. The crux of the matter is to count
the number of collisions, where essentially different (g, h) yield the same f.
We present a classification of all collisions at degree n = p^2 which yields an
exact count of those decomposable polynomials.
