diff --git a/docs/en/reference/working-with-objects.rst b/docs/en/reference/working-with-objects.rst
index 8368c9f13..bcc9bf185 100644
--- a/docs/en/reference/working-with-objects.rst
+++ b/docs/en/reference/working-with-objects.rst
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ headline "Hello World" with the ID 1234:
     <?php
     $article = $entityManager->find('CMS\Article', 1234);
     $article->setHeadline('Hello World dude!');
-    
+
     $article2 = $entityManager->find('CMS\Article', 1234);
     echo $article2->getHeadline();
 
@@ -93,25 +93,25 @@ from newly opened EntityManager.
     {
         /** @Id @Column(type="integer") @GeneratedValue */
         private $id;
-    
+
         /** @Column(type="string") */
         private $headline;
-    
+
         /** @ManyToOne(targetEntity="User") */
         private $author;
-    
+
         /** @OneToMany(targetEntity="Comment", mappedBy="article") */
         private $comments;
-    
+
         public function __construct()
         {
             $this->comments = new ArrayCollection();
         }
-    
+
         public function getAuthor() { return $this->author; }
         public function getComments() { return $this->comments; }
     }
-    
+
     $article = $em->find('Article', 1);
 
 This code only retrieves the ``Article`` instance with id 1 executing
@@ -132,22 +132,22 @@ your code. See the following code:
 
     <?php
     $article = $em->find('Article', 1);
-    
+
     // accessing a method of the user instance triggers the lazy-load
     echo "Author: " . $article->getAuthor()->getName() . "\n";
-    
+
     // Lazy Loading Proxies pass instanceof tests:
     if ($article->getAuthor() instanceof User) {
         // a User Proxy is a generated "UserProxy" class
     }
-    
+
     // accessing the comments as an iterator triggers the lazy-load
     // retrieving ALL the comments of this article from the database
     // using a single SELECT statement
     foreach ($article->getComments() as $comment) {
         echo $comment->getText() . "\n\n";
     }
-    
+
     // Article::$comments passes instanceof tests for the Collection interface
     // But it will NOT pass for the ArrayCollection interface
     if ($article->getComments() instanceof \Doctrine\Common\Collections\Collection) {
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ methods along the lines of the ``getName()`` method shown below:
         {
             // lazy loading code
         }
-    
+
         public function getName()
         {
             $this->_load();
@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ which means that its persistent state will be deleted once
     for and appear in query and collection results. See
     the section on :ref:`Database and UnitOfWork Out-Of-Sync <workingobjects_database_uow_outofsync>`
     for more information.
-    
+
 
 Example:
 
@@ -681,13 +681,13 @@ methods on a repository as follows:
 
     <?php
     // $em instanceof EntityManager
-    
+
     // All users that are 20 years old
     $users = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => 20));
-    
+
     // All users that are 20 years old and have a surname of 'Miller'
     $users = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findBy(array('age' => 20, 'surname' => 'Miller'));
-    
+
     // A single user by its nickname
     $user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneBy(array('nickname' => 'romanb'));
 
@@ -723,10 +723,18 @@ examples are equivalent:
     <?php
     // A single user by its nickname
     $user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneBy(array('nickname' => 'romanb'));
-    
+
     // A single user by its nickname (__call magic)
     $user = $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->findOneByNickname('romanb');
 
+Additionally, you can just count the result of the provided conditions when you don't really need the data:
+
+.. code-block:: php
+
+    <?php
+    // Check there is no user with nickname
+    $availableNickname = 0 === $em->getRepository('MyProject\Domain\User')->count(array('nickname' => 'nonexistent'));
+
 By Criteria
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -774,7 +782,7 @@ A DQL query is represented by an instance of the
 
     <?php
     // $em instanceof EntityManager
-    
+
     // All users with an age between 20 and 30 (inclusive).
     $q = $em->createQuery("select u from MyDomain\Model\User u where u.age >= 20 and u.age <= 30");
     $users = $q->getResult();
@@ -817,18 +825,18 @@ in a central location.
 
     <?php
     namespace MyDomain\Model;
-    
+
     use Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository;
     use Doctrine\ORM\Mapping as ORM;
-    
+
     /**
      * @ORM\Entity(repositoryClass="MyDomain\Model\UserRepository")
      */
     class User
     {
-    
+
     }
-    
+
     class UserRepository extends EntityRepository
     {
         public function getAllAdminUsers()
@@ -844,7 +852,7 @@ You can access your repository now by calling:
 
     <?php
     // $em instanceof EntityManager
-    
+
     $admins = $em->getRepository('MyDomain\Model\User')->getAllAdminUsers();
 
 
diff --git a/docs/en/tutorials/getting-started.rst b/docs/en/tutorials/getting-started.rst
index ef4734317..5e0444246 100644
--- a/docs/en/tutorials/getting-started.rst
+++ b/docs/en/tutorials/getting-started.rst
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ Install Doctrine using the Composer Dependency Management tool, by calling:
     $ composer install
 
 This will install the packages Doctrine Common, Doctrine DBAL, Doctrine ORM,
-Symfony YAML and Symfony Console into the `vendor` directory. The Symfony 
+Symfony YAML and Symfony Console into the `vendor` directory. The Symfony
 dependencies are not required by Doctrine but will be used in this tutorial.
 
 Add the following directories:
@@ -131,22 +131,22 @@ step:
     // bootstrap.php
     use Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Setup;
     use Doctrine\ORM\EntityManager;
-    
+
     require_once "vendor/autoload.php";
-    
+
     // Create a simple "default" Doctrine ORM configuration for Annotations
     $isDevMode = true;
     $config = Setup::createAnnotationMetadataConfiguration(array(__DIR__."/src"), $isDevMode);
     // or if you prefer yaml or XML
     //$config = Setup::createXMLMetadataConfiguration(array(__DIR__."/config/xml"), $isDevMode);
     //$config = Setup::createYAMLMetadataConfiguration(array(__DIR__."/config/yaml"), $isDevMode);
-    
+
     // database configuration parameters
     $conn = array(
         'driver' => 'pdo_sqlite',
         'path' => __DIR__ . '/db.sqlite',
     );
-    
+
     // obtaining the entity manager
     $entityManager = EntityManager::create($conn, $config);
 
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ doctrine command. Its a fairly simple file:
     <?php
     // cli-config.php
     require_once "bootstrap.php";
-    
+
     return \Doctrine\ORM\Tools\Console\ConsoleRunner::createHelperSet($entityManager);
 
 You can then change into your project directory and call the
@@ -196,11 +196,11 @@ Doctrine command-line tool:
     $ cd project/
     $ vendor/bin/doctrine orm:schema-tool:create
 
-At this point no entity metadata exists in `src` so you will see a message like 
-"No Metadata Classes to process." Don't worry, we'll create a Product entity and 
+At this point no entity metadata exists in `src` so you will see a message like
+"No Metadata Classes to process." Don't worry, we'll create a Product entity and
 corresponding metadata in the next section.
 
-You should be aware that during the development process you'll periodically need 
+You should be aware that during the development process you'll periodically need
 to update your database schema to be in sync with your Entities metadata.
 
 You can easily recreate the database:
@@ -257,15 +257,15 @@ entity definition:
         }
     }
 
-Note that all fields are set to protected (not public) with a 
-mutator (getter and setter) defined for every field except $id. 
-The use of mutators allows Doctrine to hook into calls which 
-manipulate the entities in ways that it could not if you just 
+Note that all fields are set to protected (not public) with a
+mutator (getter and setter) defined for every field except $id.
+The use of mutators allows Doctrine to hook into calls which
+manipulate the entities in ways that it could not if you just
 directly set the values with ``entity#field = foo;``
 
-The id field has no setter since, generally speaking, your code 
-should not set this value since it represents a database id value. 
-(Note that Doctrine itself can still set the value using the 
+The id field has no setter since, generally speaking, your code
+should not set this value since it represents a database id value.
+(Note that Doctrine itself can still set the value using the
 Reflection API instead of a defined setter function)
 
 The next step for persistence with Doctrine is to describe the
@@ -567,13 +567,13 @@ change dates. Next we will model the dynamic relationships between the entities
 by defining the references between entities.
 
 References between objects are foreign keys in the database. You never have to
-(and never should) work with the foreign keys directly, only with the objects 
+(and never should) work with the foreign keys directly, only with the objects
 that represent the foreign key through their own identity.
 
 For every foreign key you either have a Doctrine ManyToOne or OneToOne
 association. On the inverse sides of these foreign keys you can have
 OneToMany associations. Obviously you can have ManyToMany associations
-that connect two tables with each other through a join table with 
+that connect two tables with each other through a join table with
 two foreign keys.
 
 Now that you know the basics about references in Doctrine, we can extend the
@@ -783,7 +783,7 @@ the database that points from Bugs to Products.
     }
 
 We are now finished with the domain model given the requirements.
-Lets add metadata mappings for the ``User`` and ``Bug`` as we did for 
+Lets add metadata mappings for the ``User`` and ``Bug`` as we did for
 the ``Product`` before:
 
 .. configuration-block::
@@ -886,8 +886,8 @@ the ``Product`` before:
 
 
 Here we have the entity, id and primitive type definitions.
-For the "created" field we have used the ``datetime`` type, 
-which translates the YYYY-mm-dd HH:mm:ss database format 
+For the "created" field we have used the ``datetime`` type,
+which translates the YYYY-mm-dd HH:mm:ss database format
 into a PHP DateTime instance and back.
 
 After the field definitions the two qualified references to the
@@ -1164,10 +1164,10 @@ The console output of this script is then:
 
 
     As a last resort you can still use Native SQL and a description of the
-    result set to retrieve entities from the database. DQL boils down to a 
-    Native SQL statement and a ``ResultSetMapping`` instance itself. Using 
-    Native SQL you could even use stored procedures for data retrieval, or 
-    make use of advanced non-portable database queries like PostgreSql's 
+    result set to retrieve entities from the database. DQL boils down to a
+    Native SQL statement and a ``ResultSetMapping`` instance itself. Using
+    Native SQL you could even use stored procedures for data retrieval, or
+    make use of advanced non-portable database queries like PostgreSql's
     recursive queries.
 
 
@@ -1180,7 +1180,7 @@ objects only from Doctrine however. For a simple list view like the
 previous one we only need read access to our entities and can
 switch the hydration from objects to simple PHP arrays instead.
 
-Hydration can be an expensive process so only retrieving what you need can 
+Hydration can be an expensive process so only retrieving what you need can
 yield considerable performance benefits for read-only requests.
 
 Implementing the same list view as before using array hydration we
@@ -1535,6 +1535,16 @@ As an example here is the code of the first use case "List of Bugs":
 Using EntityRepositories you can avoid coupling your model with specific query logic.
 You can also re-use query logic easily throughout your application.
 
+The method ``count()`` takes an array of fields or association keys and the values to match against.
+This provides you with a convenient and lightweight way to count a resultset when you don't need to
+deal with it:
+
+.. code-block:: php
+
+    <?php
+    $productCount = $entityManager->getRepository('Product')
+                             ->count(array('name' => $productName));
+
 Conclusion
 ----------
 
diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityRepository.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityRepository.php
index 08b2ff193..2b8c1cb51 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityRepository.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/EntityRepository.php
@@ -196,16 +196,32 @@ class EntityRepository implements ObjectRepository, Selectable
     }
 
     /**
-     * Adds support for magic finders.
+     * Counts entities by a set of criteria.
+     *
+     * @todo Add this method to `ObjectRepository` interface in the next major release
+     *
+     * @param array $criteria
+     *
+     * @return int The quantity of objects that matches the criteria.
+     */
+    public function count(array $criteria)
+    {
+        $persister = $this->_em->getUnitOfWork()->getEntityPersister($this->_entityName);
+
+        return $persister->count($criteria);
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Adds support for magic finders/counters.
      *
      * @param string $method
      * @param array  $arguments
      *
-     * @return array|object The found entity/entities.
+     * @return array|object|int The found entity/entities or its resulting count.
      *
      * @throws ORMException
-     * @throws \BadMethodCallException If the method called is an invalid find* method
-     *                                 or no find* method at all and therefore an invalid
+     * @throws \BadMethodCallException If the method called is an invalid find* or countBy method
+     *                                 or no find* or countBy method at all and therefore an invalid
      *                                 method call.
      */
     public function __call($method, $arguments)
@@ -221,6 +237,11 @@ class EntityRepository implements ObjectRepository, Selectable
                 $method = 'findOneBy';
                 break;
 
+            case (0 === strpos($method, 'countBy')):
+                $by = substr($method, 7);
+                $method = 'count';
+                break;
+
             default:
                 throw new \BadMethodCallException(
                     "Undefined method '$method'. The method name must start with ".
@@ -228,14 +249,16 @@ class EntityRepository implements ObjectRepository, Selectable
                 );
         }
 
-        if (empty($arguments)) {
+        $argsCount = count($arguments);
+
+        if (0 === $argsCount) {
             throw ORMException::findByRequiresParameter($method . $by);
         }
 
         $fieldName = lcfirst(\Doctrine\Common\Util\Inflector::classify($by));
 
         if ($this->_class->hasField($fieldName) || $this->_class->hasAssociation($fieldName)) {
-            switch (count($arguments)) {
+            switch ($argsCount) {
                 case 1:
                     return $this->$method(array($fieldName => $arguments[0]));
 
diff --git a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Persisters/Entity/BasicEntityPersister.php b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Persisters/Entity/BasicEntityPersister.php
index 3b2faf878..c62a10a12 100644
--- a/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Persisters/Entity/BasicEntityPersister.php
+++ b/lib/Doctrine/ORM/Persisters/Entity/BasicEntityPersister.php
@@ -822,7 +822,7 @@ class BasicEntityPersister implements EntityPersister
             ? $this->expandCriteriaParameters($criteria)
             : $this->expandParameters($criteria);
 
-        return $this->conn->executeQuery($sql, $params, $types)->fetchColumn();
+        return (int) $this->conn->executeQuery($sql, $params, $types)->fetchColumn();
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/EntityRepositoryTest.php b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/EntityRepositoryTest.php
index ffca89ba0..e0b96387a 100644
--- a/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/EntityRepositoryTest.php
+++ b/tests/Doctrine/Tests/ORM/Functional/EntityRepositoryTest.php
@@ -272,6 +272,30 @@ class EntityRepositoryTest extends OrmFunctionalTestCase
         $this->assertEquals(4, count($users));
     }
 
+    public function testCount()
+    {
+        $this->loadFixture();
+        $repos = $this->_em->getRepository(CmsUser::class);
+
+        $userCount = $repos->count(array());
+        $this->assertSame(4, $userCount);
+
+        $userCount = $repos->count(array('status' => 'dev'));
+        $this->assertSame(2, $userCount);
+
+        $userCount = $repos->count(array('status' => 'nonexistent'));
+        $this->assertSame(0, $userCount);
+    }
+
+    public function testCountBy()
+    {
+        $this->loadFixture();
+        $repos = $this->_em->getRepository(CmsUser::class);
+
+        $userCount = $repos->countByStatus('dev');
+        $this->assertSame(2, $userCount);
+    }
+
     /**
      * @expectedException \Doctrine\ORM\ORMException
      */