There are times when you need a single storage space to be used by all objects of a class. In C, you would use a global variable, but this is not very safe. Global data can be modified by anyone, and its name can clash with other identical names in a large project. It would be ideal if the data could be stored as if it were global, but be hidden inside a class, and clearly associated with that class.

This is accomplished with static data members inside a class. There is a single piece of storage for a static data member, regardless of how many objects of that class you create. All objects share the same static storage space for that data member, so it is a way for them to “communicate” with each other. But the static data belongs to the class; its name is scoped inside the class and it can be public, private, or protected.