MySQL - count rows per month

In this article, we would like to show you how to count rows per month in MySQL.

Quick solution:

SELECT
    DATE_FORMAT(`datetime_column_name`, '%Y-%m') as `alias_name1`,
    COUNT(*) as `alias_name2`
FROM `table_name`
GROUP BY MONTH(`datetime_column_name`)
ORDER BY `alias_name2` DESC;

Practical example

To show how to count rows per month, we will use the following table:

Note:

At the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.

Example

In this example, we will display the month number and the number of registered users for each month in descending order.

Query:

SELECT
    DATE_FORMAT(`registration_time`, '%Y-%m') as `date`,
    COUNT(*) as `count`
FROM `users`
GROUP BY MONTH(`registration_time`)
ORDER BY `count` DESC;

Result:

Database preparation

create_tables.sql file:

CREATE TABLE `users` (
	`id` INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
	`username` VARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
	`registration_time` DATETIME NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
);

insert_data.sql file:

INSERT INTO `users`
	(`username`, `registration_time`)
VALUES
	('Tom', '2021-01-01 11:41:31'),
	('Chris','2021-02-02 11:42:45'),
	('Jack','2021-03-03 15:13:39'),
    ('Kim','2021-03-03 15:24:51'),
    ('Marco','2021-03-03 22:35:38'),
	('Kate','2021-04-04 22:46:51'),
	('Nam','2021-04-04 22:57:37');