Vital statistical centre (5)
I believe the answer is:
waist
'vital statistical centre' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'vital statistical centre' is the wordplay.
'vital' becomes 'wa' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'centre' indicates the central letters.
The middle letters of 'statistical' are 'ist'.
'wa'+'ist'='WAIST'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for waist that I've seen before include "Middle part of a ship" , "Ever-expanding middle" , "Band may go round here" , "Midriff" , "Central part of body" .)