Count cells between dates

Generic formula 

=COUNTIFS(range,">="&date1,range,"<="&date2)

Explanation 

To count the number of cells that contain dates between two dates, you can use the COUNTIFS function. 

In the example shown, F5 contains this formula:

=COUNTIFS(dates,">="&DATE(E5,1,1),dates,"<="&DATE(E5,12,31))

How this formula works

The COUNTIFS function is built to count cells that meet multiple criteria. In this case, we need to provide two criteria: one criteria for the earlier date and one for the later date. We supply the named range dates (C5:C11) for both criteria.

To construct each date, we use the DATE function:

DATE(E5,1,1) // build first day of year

DATE(E5,12,31) // build last day of year

The DATE function makes it easy to build dates based on year, month, and day arguments that are either hard-coded or supplied as cell references. In the example,  month and day are hard-coded, and we get year from column E. 

Note that >= and <= must be entered as text and surrounded by double quotes. This means we must use concatenation (&) to join each operator to each date.