Getting the number of times an item is flagged Whenever an item is flagged, or unflagged, a counter field is updated. To read this counter, use the get_count() method:

Drupal : Getting flag counts (1)

<?php
$flag = flag_get_flag('votes') or die('no "votes" flag');

print "The number of people who voted for this proposal:";
print $flag->get_count($node->nid);
?>