The Finder Status bar is under each Finder window. In addition to this location, there are other ways to look up the number of items in a given folder in OS X. In the case of the item count indicator, its default location is on the Finder Status bar, which when enabled is at the bottom of each Finder window. Unfortunately, some convenient aspects have been taken out by default, and without much documentation by Apple, it takes hunting around for people to either find these items or find alternatives to them. This setup was done as part of Apple's more minimal approach to the user interface it has removed toolbars and scroll bars among other items in order to present as much content on screen as possible. However, Apple has changed this in Lion so that there is no obvious item count indicator.
This feature was present by default in the Finder, which made it convenient to use for managing folder contents. In past versions of OS X, Apple offered an obvious item count indicator that showed the number of items in a given folder.
