As an anecdote: I've encountered, in production, a large order of magnitude more "null reference" errors in statically compiled languages than I have in python.

As an anecdote: I've encountered, in production, a large order of magnitude more "null reference" errors in statically compiled languages than I have in python. But, people that propagate inconsistent state into their application exist on both sides, and having a statically-typed language doesn't necessarily shield you from the consequences.