The influence of conjugacy class sizes on the structure of finite groups: a survey

The importance of conjugacy classes for the structure of finite groups was recognised very early in the study of groups. In this survey we consider the results from the many articles which have developed this topic and examined the influence of conjugacy class sizes or the number of conjugacy classes on the structure of finite groups. Whilst we begin by mentioning the early results of Sylow and Burnside, our major objective is to highlight the more recent work and present some interesting questions which we hope will inspire further research.