Using WordPress ‘count_users()’ PHP function

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The count_users() WordPress PHP function is used to count the number of users who possess each of the user roles. It assumes that there are neither duplicated nor orphaned capabilities meta_values and that role names are unique phrases. This function is either CPU-intensive (using $strategy = ‘time’) or memory-intensive (using $strategy = ‘memory’).

Usage

Here’s an example of how you might use the function:

// Count users using default strategy ('time')
$result = count_users();
echo 'There are ', $result['total_users'], ' total users';
foreach( $result['avail_roles'] as $role => $count )
    echo ', ', $count, ' are ', $role, 's';

In this example, the function will count the total users and users per role, and then print these counts.

Parameters

  • $strategy (string, optional): The computational strategy to use when counting the users. Accepts either ‘time’ or ‘memory’. Default ‘time’.
  • $site_id (int|null, optional): The site ID to count users for. Defaults to the current site.

More Information

See WordPress Developer Resources: count_users()

Examples

Count Users with Default Strategy

This example counts users using the default strategy (‘time’).

$result = count_users();
echo 'There are ', $result['total_users'], ' total users';
foreach( $result['avail_roles'] as $role => $count )
    echo ', ', $count, ' are ', $role, 's';

Count Users with Memory Strategy

This example uses the ‘memory’ strategy to count users.

$result = count_users('memory');
echo 'There are ', $result['total_users'], ' total users';
foreach( $result['avail_roles'] as $role => $count )
    echo ', ', $count, ' are ', $role, 's';

Count Users for a Specific Site

This example counts users for a specific site.

$result = count_users('time', 2);
echo 'There are ', $result['total_users'], ' total users for site 2';
foreach( $result['avail_roles'] as $role => $count )
    echo ', ', $count, ' are ', $role, 's';

Count Only Administrators

This example counts only administrators.

$result = count_users();
echo 'There are ', $result['avail_roles']['administrator'], ' administrators';

Count and Display All Roles

This example counts and displays all roles.

$result = count_users();
foreach( $result['avail_roles'] as $role => $count )
    echo 'There are ', $count, ' ', $role, 's';

In all examples, the output will be similar to:
“There are 199 total users, 11 are administrators, 4 are contributors.”