xml - XSLT increment variable in for-each loop not working -

my input xml:

<citizens>   <category type="plumbers">     <citizen>john</citizen>   </category>   <category type="doctors">     <citizen>ram</citizen>     <citizen>kumar</citizen>   </category>   <category type="farmers">     <citizen>ganesh</citizen>     <citizen>suresh</citizen>   </category> </citizens> 

i had tried following xslt count citizen irrelevant of category

<xsl:stylesheet version="2.0"     xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/xsl/transform">     <xsl:output method="text"/>     <xsl:template match="/">         <xsl:variable name="citizentotal" select="0" />         <xsl:for-each select="citizens/category">             <xsl:variable name="currentcount" select="count(citizen)" />             <xsl:variable name="citizentotal" select="$citizentotal+$currentcount" />         </xsl:for-each>         total citizen nodes: <xsl:value-of select="$citizentotal"></xsl:value-of>     </xsl:template> </xsl:stylesheet> 

the expected output 5 , gives 0 initiated value outside for-each. missing / messing <xsl:variable/> scope. tried jslt scope page default. in xslt mention scope of variable in xslt ?

the problem variables immutable in xslt. after setting not possible change it.

so assign citizentotal = 0. although make "assignment" of variable same name in for-each - in fact - declaring new variable in scope of cycle of loop. when exit for-each out of scope of - got variable declared before loop , set zero.

if need total number of citizens without cycle xpath count(//citizens/category/citizen)