Get the total number of WooCommerce orders from WordPress

get_total_num_WC_orders.php

//gets the total number of WooCommerce orders from the WP database
function get_number_of_orders() {
  global $wpdb;

  //get number of orders from database as array
  $number_of_orders_array_n = $wpdb->get_results(
    "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_posts WHERE post_type = 'shop_order'", ARRAY_N);

  //convert number of orders array into a number
  return $number_of_orders_array_n[0][0];
}