diff --git a/contrib/pgstattuple/Makefile b/contrib/pgstattuple/Makefile
index 862585cc01740f378f276c577b20dfad8f939780..6083dabefd360cc3239bf2c3592044544b7dd63f 100644
--- a/contrib/pgstattuple/Makefile
+++ b/contrib/pgstattuple/Makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 # contrib/pgstattuple/Makefile
 
 MODULE_big	= pgstattuple
-OBJS		= pgstattuple.o pgstatindex.o $(WIN32RES)
+OBJS		= pgstattuple.o pgstatindex.o pgstatapprox.o $(WIN32RES)
 
 EXTENSION = pgstattuple
-DATA = pgstattuple--1.2.sql pgstattuple--1.1--1.2.sql pgstattuple--1.0--1.1.sql pgstattuple--unpackaged--1.0.sql
+DATA = pgstattuple--1.3.sql pgstattuple--1.2--1.3.sql pgstattuple--1.1--1.2.sql pgstattuple--1.0--1.1.sql pgstattuple--unpackaged--1.0.sql
 PGFILEDESC = "pgstattuple - tuple-level statistics"
 
 REGRESS = pgstattuple
diff --git a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstatapprox.c b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstatapprox.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ae5ed56f9869cc695269f85c68ad77bcbe0514ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstatapprox.c
@@ -0,0 +1,273 @@
+/*-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ *
+ * pgstatapproc.c
+ *		  Bloat estimation functions
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2014-2015, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
+ *
+ * IDENTIFICATION
+ *		  contrib/pgstattuple/pgstatapprox.c
+ *
+ *-------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ */
+#include "postgres.h"
+
+#include "access/visibilitymap.h"
+#include "access/transam.h"
+#include "access/xact.h"
+#include "access/multixact.h"
+#include "access/htup_details.h"
+#include "catalog/namespace.h"
+#include "funcapi.h"
+#include "miscadmin.h"
+#include "storage/bufmgr.h"
+#include "storage/freespace.h"
+#include "storage/procarray.h"
+#include "storage/lmgr.h"
+#include "utils/builtins.h"
+#include "utils/tqual.h"
+#include "commands/vacuum.h"
+
+PG_FUNCTION_INFO_V1(pgstattuple_approx);
+
+typedef struct output_type
+{
+	uint64		table_len;
+	uint64		scanned_percent;
+	uint64		tuple_count;
+	uint64		tuple_len;
+	double		tuple_percent;
+	uint64		dead_tuple_count;
+	uint64		dead_tuple_len;
+	double		dead_tuple_percent;
+	uint64		free_space;
+	double		free_percent;
+} output_type;
+
+#define NUM_OUTPUT_COLUMNS 10
+
+/*
+ * This function takes an already open relation and scans its pages,
+ * skipping those that have the corresponding visibility map bit set.
+ * For pages we skip, we find the free space from the free space map
+ * and approximate tuple_len on that basis. For the others, we count
+ * the exact number of dead tuples etc.
+ *
+ * This scan is loosely based on vacuumlazy.c:lazy_scan_heap(), but
+ * we do not try to avoid skipping single pages.
+ */
+static void
+statapprox_heap(Relation rel, output_type *stat)
+{
+	BlockNumber scanned,
+				nblocks,
+				blkno;
+	Buffer		vmbuffer = InvalidBuffer;
+	BufferAccessStrategy bstrategy;
+	TransactionId OldestXmin;
+	uint64		misc_count = 0;
+
+	OldestXmin = GetOldestXmin(rel, true);
+	bstrategy = GetAccessStrategy(BAS_BULKREAD);
+
+	nblocks = RelationGetNumberOfBlocks(rel);
+	scanned = 0;
+
+	for (blkno = 0; blkno < nblocks; blkno++)
+	{
+		Buffer		buf;
+		Page		page;
+		OffsetNumber offnum,
+					maxoff;
+		Size		freespace;
+
+		CHECK_FOR_INTERRUPTS();
+
+		/*
+		 * If the page has only visible tuples, then we can find out the
+		 * free space from the FSM and move on.
+		 */
+		if (visibilitymap_test(rel, blkno, &vmbuffer))
+		{
+			freespace = GetRecordedFreeSpace(rel, blkno);
+			stat->tuple_len += BLCKSZ - freespace;
+			stat->free_space += freespace;
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		buf = ReadBufferExtended(rel, MAIN_FORKNUM, blkno,
+								 RBM_NORMAL, bstrategy);
+
+		LockBuffer(buf, BUFFER_LOCK_SHARE);
+
+		page = BufferGetPage(buf);
+
+		/*
+		 * It's not safe to call PageGetHeapFreeSpace() on new pages, so
+		 * we treat them as being free space for our purposes.
+		 */
+		if (!PageIsNew(page))
+			stat->free_space += PageGetHeapFreeSpace(page);
+		else
+			stat->free_space += BLCKSZ - SizeOfPageHeaderData;
+
+		if (PageIsNew(page) || PageIsEmpty(page))
+		{
+			UnlockReleaseBuffer(buf);
+			continue;
+		}
+
+		scanned++;
+
+		/*
+		 * Look at each tuple on the page and decide whether it's live
+		 * or dead, then count it and its size. Unlike lazy_scan_heap,
+		 * we can afford to ignore problems and special cases.
+		 */
+		maxoff = PageGetMaxOffsetNumber(page);
+
+		for (offnum = FirstOffsetNumber;
+			 offnum <= maxoff;
+			 offnum = OffsetNumberNext(offnum))
+		{
+			ItemId		itemid;
+			HeapTupleData tuple;
+
+			itemid = PageGetItemId(page, offnum);
+
+			if (!ItemIdIsUsed(itemid) || ItemIdIsRedirected(itemid) ||
+				ItemIdIsDead(itemid))
+			{
+				continue;
+			}
+
+			Assert(ItemIdIsNormal(itemid));
+
+			ItemPointerSet(&(tuple.t_self), blkno, offnum);
+
+			tuple.t_data = (HeapTupleHeader) PageGetItem(page, itemid);
+			tuple.t_len = ItemIdGetLength(itemid);
+			tuple.t_tableOid = RelationGetRelid(rel);
+
+			/*
+			 * We count live and dead tuples, but we also need to add up
+			 * others in order to feed vac_estimate_reltuples.
+			 */
+			switch (HeapTupleSatisfiesVacuum(&tuple, OldestXmin, buf))
+			{
+				case HEAPTUPLE_RECENTLY_DEAD:
+					misc_count++;
+					/* Fall through */
+				case HEAPTUPLE_DEAD:
+					stat->dead_tuple_len += tuple.t_len;
+					stat->dead_tuple_count++;
+					break;
+				case HEAPTUPLE_LIVE:
+					stat->tuple_len += tuple.t_len;
+					stat->tuple_count++;
+					break;
+				case HEAPTUPLE_INSERT_IN_PROGRESS:
+				case HEAPTUPLE_DELETE_IN_PROGRESS:
+					misc_count++;
+					break;
+				default:
+					elog(ERROR, "unexpected HeapTupleSatisfiesVacuum result");
+					break;
+			}
+		}
+
+		UnlockReleaseBuffer(buf);
+	}
+
+	stat->table_len = (uint64) nblocks * BLCKSZ;
+	stat->tuple_count = vac_estimate_reltuples(rel, false, nblocks, scanned,
+											   stat->tuple_count+misc_count);
+
+	/*
+	 * Calculate percentages if the relation has one or more pages.
+	 */
+	if (nblocks != 0)
+	{
+		stat->scanned_percent = 100 * scanned / nblocks;
+		stat->tuple_percent = 100.0 * stat->tuple_len / stat->table_len;
+		stat->dead_tuple_percent = 100.0 * stat->dead_tuple_len / stat->table_len;
+		stat->free_percent = 100.0 * stat->free_space / stat->table_len;
+	}
+
+	if (BufferIsValid(vmbuffer))
+	{
+		ReleaseBuffer(vmbuffer);
+		vmbuffer = InvalidBuffer;
+	}
+}
+
+/*
+ * Returns estimated live/dead tuple statistics for the given relid.
+ */
+Datum
+pgstattuple_approx(PG_FUNCTION_ARGS)
+{
+	Oid			relid = PG_GETARG_OID(0);
+	Relation	rel;
+	output_type stat = {0};
+	TupleDesc	tupdesc;
+	bool		nulls[NUM_OUTPUT_COLUMNS];
+	Datum		values[NUM_OUTPUT_COLUMNS];
+	HeapTuple	ret;
+	int			i = 0;
+
+	if (!superuser())
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_INSUFFICIENT_PRIVILEGE),
+				 (errmsg("must be superuser to use pgstattuple functions"))));
+
+	if (get_call_result_type(fcinfo, NULL, &tupdesc) != TYPEFUNC_COMPOSITE)
+		elog(ERROR, "return type must be a row type");
+
+	if (tupdesc->natts != NUM_OUTPUT_COLUMNS)
+		elog(ERROR, "incorrect number of output arguments");
+
+	rel = relation_open(relid, AccessShareLock);
+
+	/*
+	 * Reject attempts to read non-local temporary relations; we would be
+	 * likely to get wrong data since we have no visibility into the owning
+	 * session's local buffers.
+	 */
+	if (RELATION_IS_OTHER_TEMP(rel))
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+				 errmsg("cannot access temporary tables of other sessions")));
+
+	/*
+	 * We support only ordinary relations and materialised views,
+	 * because we depend on the visibility map and free space map
+	 * for our estimates about unscanned pages.
+	 */
+	if (!(rel->rd_rel->relkind == RELKIND_RELATION ||
+		  rel->rd_rel->relkind == RELKIND_MATVIEW))
+		ereport(ERROR,
+				(errcode(ERRCODE_FEATURE_NOT_SUPPORTED),
+				 errmsg("\"%s\" is not a table or materialized view",
+						RelationGetRelationName(rel))));
+
+	statapprox_heap(rel, &stat);
+
+	relation_close(rel, AccessShareLock);
+
+	memset(nulls, 0, sizeof(nulls));
+
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.table_len);
+	values[i++] = Float8GetDatum(stat.scanned_percent);
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.tuple_count);
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.tuple_len);
+	values[i++] = Float8GetDatum(stat.tuple_percent);
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.dead_tuple_count);
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.dead_tuple_len);
+	values[i++] = Float8GetDatum(stat.dead_tuple_percent);
+	values[i++] = Int64GetDatum(stat.free_space);
+	values[i++] = Float8GetDatum(stat.free_percent);
+
+	ret =  heap_form_tuple(tupdesc, values, nulls);
+	return HeapTupleGetDatum(ret);
+}
diff --git a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2--1.3.sql b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2--1.3.sql
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..99301a27caf6cb1da9caff8fa1d66469069f34e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2--1.3.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+/* contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2--1.3.sql */
+
+-- complain if script is sourced in psql, rather than via ALTER EXTENSION
+\echo Use "ALTER EXTENSION pgstattuple UPDATE TO '1.3'" to load this file. \quit
+
+CREATE FUNCTION pgstattuple_approx(IN reloid regclass,
+    OUT table_len BIGINT,               -- physical table length in bytes
+    OUT scanned_percent FLOAT8,         -- what percentage of the table's pages was scanned
+    OUT approx_tuple_count BIGINT,      -- estimated number of live tuples
+    OUT approx_tuple_len BIGINT,        -- estimated total length in bytes of live tuples
+    OUT approx_tuple_percent FLOAT8,    -- live tuples in % (based on estimate)
+    OUT dead_tuple_count BIGINT,        -- exact number of dead tuples
+    OUT dead_tuple_len BIGINT,          -- exact total length in bytes of dead tuples
+    OUT dead_tuple_percent FLOAT8,      -- dead tuples in % (based on estimate)
+    OUT approx_free_space BIGINT,       -- estimated free space in bytes
+    OUT approx_free_percent FLOAT8)     -- free space in % (based on estimate)
+AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'pgstattuple_approx'
+LANGUAGE C STRICT;
diff --git a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2.sql b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.3.sql
similarity index 72%
rename from contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2.sql
rename to contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.3.sql
index e5fa2f58dab2aa415d0fb4effc90fb17701dcb76..f3996e74a878a1e39ad52c2166fdaa4feffc3ed7 100644
--- a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2.sql
+++ b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.3.sql
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-/* contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.2.sql */
+/* contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple--1.3.sql */
 
 -- complain if script is sourced in psql, rather than via CREATE EXTENSION
 \echo Use "CREATE EXTENSION pgstattuple" to load this file. \quit
@@ -77,3 +77,19 @@ CREATE FUNCTION pg_relpages(IN relname regclass)
 RETURNS BIGINT
 AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'pg_relpagesbyid'
 LANGUAGE C STRICT;
+
+/* New stuff in 1.3 begins here */
+
+CREATE FUNCTION pgstattuple_approx(IN reloid regclass,
+    OUT table_len BIGINT,               -- physical table length in bytes
+    OUT scanned_percent FLOAT8,         -- what percentage of the table's pages was scanned
+    OUT approx_tuple_count BIGINT,      -- estimated number of live tuples
+    OUT approx_tuple_len BIGINT,        -- estimated total length in bytes of live tuples
+    OUT approx_tuple_percent FLOAT8,    -- live tuples in % (based on estimate)
+    OUT dead_tuple_count BIGINT,        -- exact number of dead tuples
+    OUT dead_tuple_len BIGINT,          -- exact total length in bytes of dead tuples
+    OUT dead_tuple_percent FLOAT8,      -- dead tuples in % (based on estimate)
+    OUT approx_free_space BIGINT,       -- estimated free space in bytes
+    OUT approx_free_percent FLOAT8)     -- free space in % (based on estimate)
+AS 'MODULE_PATHNAME', 'pgstattuple_approx'
+LANGUAGE C STRICT;
diff --git a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple.control b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple.control
index a7cf47fd9217a1238bd2a7cfd5b0aab5ab60da0c..c03b180143fa5eee3ee01bda1594f27fe586650a 100644
--- a/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple.control
+++ b/contrib/pgstattuple/pgstattuple.control
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 # pgstattuple extension
 comment = 'show tuple-level statistics'
-default_version = '1.2'
+default_version = '1.3'
 module_pathname = '$libdir/pgstattuple'
 relocatable = true
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/pgstattuple.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/pgstattuple.sgml
index 9cabd71166e8e948a610c30f573a7b762b0655ca..b31fee9b0e1f48675d4013b7e3bea306aa3dedf7 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/pgstattuple.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/pgstattuple.sgml
@@ -358,6 +358,140 @@ pending_tuples | 0
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
 
+   <varlistentry>
+    <term>
+     <indexterm>
+      <primary>pgstattuple_approx</primary>
+     </indexterm>
+     <function>pgstattuple_approx(regclass) returns record</>
+    </term>
+
+    <listitem>
+     <para>
+      <function>pgstattuple_approx</function> is a faster alternative to
+      <function>pgstattuple</function> that returns approximate results.
+      The argument is the target relation's OID.
+      For example:
+<programlisting>
+test=> SELECT * FROM pgstattuple_approx('pg_catalog.pg_proc'::regclass);
+-[ RECORD 1 ]--------+-------
+table_len            | 573440
+scanned_percent      | 2
+approx_tuple_count   | 2740
+approx_tuple_len     | 561210
+approx_tuple_percent | 97.87
+dead_tuple_count     | 0
+dead_tuple_len       | 0
+dead_tuple_percent   | 0
+approx_free_space    | 11996
+approx_free_percent  | 2.09
+</programlisting>
+      The output columns are described in <xref linkend="pgstatapprox-columns">.
+     </para>
+
+     <para>
+      Whereas <function>pgstattuple</function> always performs a
+      full-table scan and returns an exact count of live and dead tuples
+      (and their sizes) and free space, <function>pgstattuple_approx</function>
+      tries to avoid the full-table scan and returns exact dead tuple
+      statistics along with an approximation of the number and
+      size of live tuples and free space.
+     </para>
+
+     <para>
+      It does this by skipping pages that have only visible tuples
+      according to the visibility map (if a page has the corresponding VM
+      bit set, then it is assumed to contain no dead tuples). For such
+      pages, it derives the free space value from the free space map, and
+      assumes that the rest of the space on the page is taken up by live
+      tuples.
+     </para>
+
+     <para>
+      For pages that cannot be skipped, it scans each tuple, recording its
+      presence and size in the appropriate counters, and adding up the
+      free space on the page. At the end, it estimates the total number of
+      live tuples based on the number of pages and tuples scanned (in the
+      same way that VACUUM estimates pg_class.reltuples).
+     </para>
+
+     <table id="pgstatapprox-columns">
+      <title><function>pgstattuple_approx</function> Output Columns</title>
+      <tgroup cols="3">
+       <thead>
+        <row>
+         <entry>Column</entry>
+         <entry>Type</entry>
+         <entry>Description</entry>
+        </row>
+       </thead>
+
+       <tbody>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>table_len</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Physical relation length in bytes (exact)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>scanned_percent</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>float8</type></entry>
+         <entry>Percentage of table scanned</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>tuple_count</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Number of live tuples (estimated)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>tuple_len</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Total length of live tuples in bytes (estimated)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>tuple_percent</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>float8</type></entry>
+         <entry>Percentage of live tuples</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>dead_tuple_count</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Number of dead tuples (exact)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>dead_tuple_len</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Total length of dead tuples in bytes (exact)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>dead_tuple_percent</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>float8</type></entry>
+         <entry>Percentage of dead tuples</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>approx_free_space</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>bigint</type></entry>
+         <entry>Total free space in bytes (estimated)</entry>
+        </row>
+        <row>
+         <entry><structfield>approx_free_percent</structfield></entry>
+         <entry><type>float8</type></entry>
+         <entry>Percentage of free space</entry>
+        </row>
+
+       </tbody>
+      </tgroup>
+     </table>
+
+     <para>
+      In the above output, the free space figures may not match the
+      <function>pgstattuple</function> output exactly, because the free
+      space map gives us an exact figure, but is not guaranteed to be
+      accurate to the byte.
+     </para>
+
+    </listitem>
+   </varlistentry>
+
   </variablelist>
  </sect2>
 
@@ -365,7 +499,7 @@ pending_tuples | 0
   <title>Authors</title>
 
   <para>
-   Tatsuo Ishii and Satoshi Nagayasu
+   Tatsuo Ishii, Satoshi Nagayasu and Abhijit Menon-Sen
   </para>
  </sect2>