diff --git a/docs/topics/settings.rst b/docs/topics/settings.rst
index 076dc6bfd..1f1217770 100644
--- a/docs/topics/settings.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/settings.rst
@@ -335,17 +335,6 @@ See also: :ref:`faq-bfo-dfo` about tuning Scrapy for BFO or DFO.
     other priority settings :setting:`REDIRECT_PRIORITY_ADJUST`
     and :setting:`RETRY_PRIORITY_ADJUST`.
 
-.. setting:: DEPTH_STATS
-
-DEPTH_STATS
------------
-
-Default: ``True``
-
-Scope: ``scrapy.spidermiddlewares.depth.DepthMiddleware``
-
-Whether to collect maximum depth stats.
-
 .. setting:: DEPTH_STATS_VERBOSE
 
 DEPTH_STATS_VERBOSE
diff --git a/docs/topics/spider-middleware.rst b/docs/topics/spider-middleware.rst
index 1d451af21..2b7e42771 100644
--- a/docs/topics/spider-middleware.rst
+++ b/docs/topics/spider-middleware.rst
@@ -212,7 +212,8 @@ DepthMiddleware
 
       * :setting:`DEPTH_LIMIT` - The maximum depth that will be allowed to
         crawl for any site. If zero, no limit will be imposed.
-      * :setting:`DEPTH_STATS` - Whether to collect depth stats.
+      * :setting:`DEPTH_STATS_VERBOSE` - Whether to collect the number of
+        requests for each depth.
       * :setting:`DEPTH_PRIORITY` - Whether to prioritize the requests based on
         their depth.
 
diff --git a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
index 36e17ef6b..ca004aedd 100644
--- a/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
+++ b/scrapy/settings/default_settings.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ DEFAULT_REQUEST_HEADERS = {
 }
 
 DEPTH_LIMIT = 0
-DEPTH_STATS = True
+DEPTH_STATS_VERBOSE = False
 DEPTH_PRIORITY = 0
 
 DNSCACHE_ENABLED = True
diff --git a/scrapy/spidermiddlewares/depth.py b/scrapy/spidermiddlewares/depth.py
index e2f039146..34a87f2df 100644
--- a/scrapy/spidermiddlewares/depth.py
+++ b/scrapy/spidermiddlewares/depth.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 class DepthMiddleware(object):
 
-    def __init__(self, maxdepth, stats=None, verbose_stats=False, prio=1):
+    def __init__(self, maxdepth, stats, verbose_stats=False, prio=1):
         self.maxdepth = maxdepth
         self.stats = stats
         self.verbose_stats = verbose_stats
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ class DepthMiddleware(object):
                         extra={'spider': spider}
                     )
                     return False
-                elif self.stats:
+                else:
                     if self.verbose_stats:
                         self.stats.inc_value('request_depth_count/%s' % depth,
                                              spider=spider)
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class DepthMiddleware(object):
             return True
 
         # base case (depth=0)
-        if self.stats and 'depth' not in response.meta:
+        if 'depth' not in response.meta:
             response.meta['depth'] = 0
             if self.verbose_stats:
                 self.stats.inc_value('request_depth_count/0', spider=spider)