diff --git a/system/Database/BaseResult.php b/system/Database/BaseResult.php
index 73edb3381e77..d7991e9190a4 100644
--- a/system/Database/BaseResult.php
+++ b/system/Database/BaseResult.php
@@ -61,11 +61,11 @@ abstract class BaseResult implements ResultInterface
 	public $currentRow = 0;
 
 	/**
-	 * Number of rows
+	 * The number of records in the query result
 	 *
-	 * @var integer
+	 * @var integer|null
 	 */
-	public $numRows;
+	protected $numRows = null;
 
 	/**
 	 * Row data
@@ -130,7 +130,7 @@ public function getCustomResultObject(string $className)
 			return $this->customResultObject[$className];
 		}
 
-		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID || $this->numRows === 0)
+		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID)
 		{
 			return [];
 		}
@@ -197,7 +197,7 @@ public function getResultArray(): array
 		// In the event that query caching is on, the result_id variable
 		// will not be a valid resource so we'll simply return an empty
 		// array.
-		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID || $this->numRows === 0)
+		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID)
 		{
 			return [];
 		}
@@ -240,7 +240,7 @@ public function getResultObject(): array
 		// In the event that query caching is on, the result_id variable
 		// will not be a valid resource so we'll simply return an empty
 		// array.
-		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID || $this->numRows === 0)
+		if (is_bool($this->resultID) || ! $this->resultID)
 		{
 			return [];
 		}
@@ -532,6 +532,31 @@ public function getUnbufferedRow(string $type = 'object')
 
 	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+	/**
+	 * Number of rows in the result set; checks for previous count, falls
+	 * back on counting resultArray or resultObject, finally fetching resultArray
+	 * if nothing was previously fetched
+	 *
+	 * @return integer
+	 */
+	public function getNumRows(): int
+	{
+		if (is_int($this->numRows))
+		{
+			return $this->numRows;
+		}
+		if ($this->resultArray !== [])
+		{
+			return $this->numRows = count($this->resultArray);
+		}
+		if ($this->resultObject !== [])
+		{
+			return $this->numRows = count($this->resultObject);
+		}
+
+		return $this->numRows = count($this->getResultArray());
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Gets the number of fields in the result set.
 	 *
diff --git a/system/Database/MySQLi/Result.php b/system/Database/MySQLi/Result.php
index 656fb6c4dbad..6ceb92347022 100644
--- a/system/Database/MySQLi/Result.php
+++ b/system/Database/MySQLi/Result.php
@@ -98,7 +98,7 @@ public function getFieldData(): array
 			$retVal[$i]              = new stdClass();
 			$retVal[$i]->name        = $data->name;
 			$retVal[$i]->type        = $data->type;
-			$retVal[$i]->type_name   = in_array($data->type, [1, 247], true) ? 'char'	: (isset($dataTypes[$data->type]) ? $dataTypes[$data->type] : null);
+			$retVal[$i]->type_name   = in_array($data->type, [1, 247], true) ? 'char' : (isset($dataTypes[$data->type]) ? $dataTypes[$data->type] : null);
 			$retVal[$i]->max_length  = $data->max_length;
 			$retVal[$i]->primary_key = (int) ($data->flags & 2);
 			$retVal[$i]->length      = $data->length;
@@ -175,4 +175,21 @@ protected function fetchObject(string $className = 'stdClass')
 	}
 
 	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+	/**
+	 * Returns the number of rows in the resultID (i.e., mysqli_result object)
+	 *
+	 * @return integer number of rows in a query result
+	 */
+	public function getNumRows(): int
+	{
+		if (! is_int($this->numRows))
+		{
+			$this->numRows = $this->resultID->num_rows;
+		}
+
+		return $this->numRows;
+	}
+
+	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
 }
diff --git a/system/Database/Postgre/Result.php b/system/Database/Postgre/Result.php
index 1040c4ac4069..3f0dbc574006 100644
--- a/system/Database/Postgre/Result.php
+++ b/system/Database/Postgre/Result.php
@@ -140,5 +140,21 @@ protected function fetchObject(string $className = 'stdClass')
 		return pg_fetch_object($this->resultID, null, $className);
 	}
 
+	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
+	/**
+	 * Returns the number of rows in the resultID (i.e., PostgreSQL query result resource)
+	 *
+	 * @return integer The number of rows in the query result
+	 */
+	public function getNumRows(): int
+	{
+		if (! is_int($this->numRows))
+		{
+			$this->numRows = pg_num_rows($this->resultID);
+		}
+
+		return $this->numRows;
+	}
+
 	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
 }
diff --git a/system/Database/SQLSRV/Result.php b/system/Database/SQLSRV/Result.php
index ad254efcc9b2..500a6593e675 100755
--- a/system/Database/SQLSRV/Result.php
+++ b/system/Database/SQLSRV/Result.php
@@ -181,4 +181,22 @@ protected function fetchObject(string $className = 'stdClass')
 		}
 		return sqlsrv_fetch_object($this->resultID, $className);
 	}
+
+	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
+	/**
+	 * Returns the number of rows in the resultID (i.e., SQLSRV query result resource)
+	 *
+	 * @return integer Returns the number of rows retrieved on success
+	 */
+	public function getNumRows(): int
+	{
+		if (! is_int($this->numRows))
+		{
+			$this->numRows = sqlsrv_num_rows($this->resultID);
+		}
+
+		return $this->numRows;
+	}
+
+	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
 }
diff --git a/system/Test/Mock/MockResult.php b/system/Test/Mock/MockResult.php
index 4e9cef1eb63b..3d2d0d39d1b5 100644
--- a/system/Test/Mock/MockResult.php
+++ b/system/Test/Mock/MockResult.php
@@ -105,4 +105,16 @@ protected function fetchObject($className = 'stdClass')
 	}
 
 	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+	/**
+	 * Gets the number of fields in the result set.
+	 *
+	 * @return integer
+	 */
+	public function getNumRows(): int
+	{
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	//--------------------------------------------------------------------
 }
diff --git a/tests/system/Database/Live/GetNumRowsTest.php b/tests/system/Database/Live/GetNumRowsTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..1fcfdb849bc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/system/Database/Live/GetNumRowsTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+<?php namespace Builder;
+
+use CodeIgniter\Test\CIDatabaseTestCase;
+
+class GetNumRowsTest extends CIDatabaseTestCase
+{
+	protected $refresh = true;
+
+	protected $seed = 'Tests\Support\Database\Seeds\CITestSeeder';
+
+	/**
+	 * Added as instructed at https://codeigniter4.github.io/userguide/testing/database.html#the-test-class
+	 * {@inheritDoc}
+	 *
+	 * @see \CodeIgniter\Test\CIDatabaseTestCase::setUp()
+	 */
+	public function setUp(): void
+	{
+		parent::setUp();
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * Added as instructed at https://codeigniter4.github.io/userguide/testing/database.html#the-test-class
+	 * {@inheritDoc}
+	 *
+	 * @see \CodeIgniter\Test\CIDatabaseTestCase::tearDown()
+	 */
+	public function tearDown(): void
+	{
+		parent::tearDown();
+	}
+
+	/**
+	 * tests newly added ResultInterface::getNumRows with a live db
+	 */
+	public function testGetRowNum()
+	{
+		$query = $this->db->table('job')->get();
+		$this->assertEquals(4, $query->getNumRows());
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/user_guide_src/source/database/results.rst b/user_guide_src/source/database/results.rst
index 8e9fdc426157..dc8bdc94ccd4 100644
--- a/user_guide_src/source/database/results.rst
+++ b/user_guide_src/source/database/results.rst
@@ -283,6 +283,19 @@ Make sure to call the method using your query result object::
 
 	echo $query->getFieldNames();
 
+**getNumRows()**
+
+The number of records returned by the query. Make sure to call
+the method using your query result object::
+
+	$query = $db->query('SELECT * FROM my_table');
+
+	echo $query->getNumRows();
+
+.. note:: Because SQLite3 lacks an efficient method returning a record count,
+	CodeIgniter will fetch and buffer the query result records internally and
+	return a count of the resulting record array, which can be inefficient.
+
 **freeResult()**
 
 It frees the memory associated with the result and deletes the result
@@ -500,6 +513,13 @@ Class Reference
 		Generates an array of ``stdClass`` objects containing
 		field meta-data.
 
+    .. php:method:: getNumRows()
+
+		:returns:	Number of rows in result set
+		:rtype:	int
+
+		Returns number of rows returned by the query
+
 	.. php:method:: freeResult()
 
 		:rtype:	void