With a filtered view, try the view patterns:
##numentriestotal##
##numentriesviewable##
##numentriesfltered##
##numentriesdisplayed##
They should work even if you don't actually display the entries. So you can create views to display only that and populate them via the ##viewcontent:<viewname>## pattern. A bit of overkill, for sure. Better strategies to this effect forthcoming.
hth