The formation of high mass stars and clusters occurs in giant molecular clouds. Objects in evolved stages of massive star formation such as protostars, hot molecular cores, and ultracompact HII regions have been studied in more detail than earlier, colder objects. With this in mind, the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the whole inner Galactic plane at 870 micron (ATLASGAL) has been carried out to provide a global view of cold dust and star formation at submillimetre wavelengths. To derive kinematic distances to a large sample of ATLASGAL clumps we divided them into groups of sources, which are located close together, mostly within a radius of 2 pc, and have velocities in a similar range with a median velocity dispersion of ~ 1 km/s. Using NH3, N2H+ and CS velocities we calculate near and far kinematic distances to 296 groups of ATLASGAL sources in the first quadrant and 393 groups in the fourth quadrant. We analyse HI self-absorption and HI absorption to resolve the kinematic distance ambiguity. We obtain a scale height of ~ 28+/-2 pc and displacement below the Galactic midplane of ~ -7+/-1 pc. Within distances from 2 to 18 kpc ATLASGAL clumps have a broad range of gas masses with a median of 1050 solar masses and a wide distribution of radii with a median of 0.4 pc. Their distribution in galactocentric radii is correlated with spiral arms. Using a statistically significant ATLASGAL sample we derive a power-law exponent of -2.2+/-0.1 of the clump mass function. This is consistent with the slope derived for clusters and with that of the stellar initial mass function. Examining the power-law index for different galactocentric distances and various source samples shows that it is independent of environment and evolutionary phase. Fitting the mass-size relationship by a power law gives a slope of 1.76+/-0.01 for cold sources such as IRDCs and warm clumps associated with HII regions.