Count Posts in Date Range

Attempt 1

// WP_Query arguments
$args = array(
	'post_type'              => array( 'post' ),
	'post_status'            => array( 'publish' ),
	'nopaging'               => true,
	'order'                  => 'ASC',
	'orderby'                => 'date',
	'date_query'             => array(
		'relation' => 'AND',
		array(
			'before' => array(
				'year'  => 2019,
				'month' => 4,
				'day'   => 1,
			),
			'after' => array(
				'year'  => 2018,
				'month' => 12,
				'day'   => 31,
			),
			'inclusive' => false,
		),
	),
);

// The Query
$count_posts = new WP_Query( $args );