Something like:
$qb = $entityManager->createQueryBuilder();
$qb->select('count(account.id)');
$qb->from('ZaysoCoreBundle:Account','account');
$count = $qb->getQuery()->getSingleScalarResult();
Some folks feel that expressions are somehow better than just using straight DQL. One even went so far as to edit a four year old answer. I rolled his edit back. Go figure.