Python Dictionary Count: How to Count Items With a Dict

To do a Python dictionary count, loop over your data with counts[item] = counts.get(item, 0) + 1, or pass the whole list to collections.Counter. Either way, each key holds how often it showed up.

In this tutorial, we’ll build a Python dictionary count three ways, then count the values already inside a dict. I tested every snippet on Python 3.12.5.

The sample coffee orders we’ll count in Python

Every example imports the same two objects from cart.py:

# Drink orders at a Denver coffee cart, Tuesday 11/03/2026
orders = ["Latte", "Mocha", "Latte", "Cold Brew", "Latte",
          "Chai", "Mocha", "Latte", "Cold Brew", "Drip"]

favorites = {"Emily Carter": "Latte", "James Rivera": "Mocha",
             "Olivia Brooks": "Latte", "Ryan Mitchell": "Chai",
             "Ava Thompson": "Latte", "Noah Bennett": "Cold Brew"}

orders has ten drinks (four lattes), and favorites maps six customers to a drink. You’ll start most counts from an empty Python dictionary.

Method 1: Count items with a dictionary and get() (Recommended)

You don’t need an import, and it works in any Python version:

from cart import orders, favorites

counts = {}
for drink in orders:
    counts[drink] = counts.get(drink, 0) + 1

print(counts)
print("Lattes sold:", counts["Latte"])
print("Distinct drinks:", len(counts))

Output:

{'Latte': 4, 'Mocha': 2, 'Cold Brew': 2, 'Chai': 1, 'Drip': 1}
Lattes sold: 4
Distinct drinks: 5

Latte comes out on top with 4, and five different drinks were sold.

How does this code work?

counts.get(drink, 0) returns the current total, or 0 for a drink we haven’t seen yet. Adding 1 and storing it back is the whole trick.

len(counts) then gives the number of distinct drinks. For bumping a single key, see incrementing a value in a Python dictionary.

Method 2: Count items with collections.Counter

Counter is a dictionary subclass built for counting. Hand it the same orders list:

from cart import orders, favorites

from collections import Counter

counts = Counter(orders)
print(counts)
print("Top 2:", counts.most_common(2))
print("Total orders:", counts.total())

Output:

Counter({'Latte': 4, 'Mocha': 2, 'Cold Brew': 2, 'Chai': 1, 'Drip': 1})
Top 2: [('Latte', 4), ('Mocha', 2)]
Total orders: 10

Same five totals, the top two drinks, and 10 orders overall.

How does this code work?

Counter(orders) runs the counting loop in C. most_common(2) sorts by count for you, and total() adds every count (it needs Python 3.10+).

Subtraction and other tricks are in the Counter function in Python. To rank a plain dict, see sorting a Python dictionary.

Method 3: Count with defaultdict(int) and skip the KeyError

On a plain dict, counts[drink] += 1 fails on the first new drink. A defaultdict fills in 0 instead. Same orders:

from cart import orders, favorites

from collections import defaultdict

plain = {}
try:
    for drink in orders:
        plain[drink] += 1
except KeyError as err:
    print("Plain dict -> KeyError:", err)

counts = defaultdict(int)
for drink in orders:
    counts[drink] += 1
print(dict(counts))

Output:

Plain dict -> KeyError: 'Latte'
{'Latte': 4, 'Mocha': 2, 'Cold Brew': 2, 'Chai': 1, 'Drip': 1}

The plain dict stops at KeyError: 'Latte'; the defaultdict finishes with the same five totals.

How does this code work?

+= 1 reads the old value first, and a new key has none; int() supplies 0. The Python dictionary KeyError guide covers other causes.

Important: merely reading counts["Tea"] inserts Tea with 0. With list instead of int, it builds a Python dictionary of lists.

How do you count values inside a dictionary?

Sometimes the dictionary already exists. I’ll switch to favorites:

from cart import orders, favorites

from collections import Counter

print("Customers:", len(favorites))
print("Latte fans:", list(favorites.values()).count("Latte"))
print(Counter(favorites.values()))

others = sum(1 for d in favorites.values() if d != "Latte")
print("Other drinks:", others)

Output:

Customers: 6
Latte fans: 3
Counter({'Latte': 3, 'Mocha': 1, 'Chai': 1, 'Cold Brew': 1})
Other drinks: 3

Six customers: three latte fans and three others.

How does this code work?

len(favorites) counts key-value pairs; counting the keys in a Python dictionary goes deeper.

.values() yields every drink, so count() finds one and Counter tallies all. See iterating through a Python dictionary.

Which Python dictionary count method should you use?

Method	Use it when	Watch out for
get() loop	No imports, full control	Slightly more code
Counter	Counting a whole list, top-N	total() needs 3.10+
defaultdict(int)	Counting inside a bigger loop	Lookups insert missing keys

I’d use Counter for one-off counts and get() when you’re mixing the count with other logic.

Things to keep in mind when counting with a dictionary

• Keys are case-sensitive. “Latte” and “latte” are two keys; you’ll want .lower().
• Lists can’t be keys. Use tuples instead.
• Just counting a list? See counting occurrences in a Python list.

Got other things to tally? Pick up from here:

• Count words in a file in Python
• Count characters in a Python string
• Count unique values in a pandas column
• Count occurrences in Python arrays

Frequently asked questions