Debra Dalgleish explains it and offers a couple of work arounds:
http://contextures.com/xlautofilter02.html#Count

cyndi wrote:

I have two excel worksheet using 2003, the worksheet are the same. When I
autofilter one, it display the number of records being shown in the lower
left hand corner of the status bar, the second worksheet display filter mode
in the status instead. How do I get the number of records being display
instead.
Thanks

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Dave Peterson