Quick question - total site member count in a block

[Carl Maltby]

Hi guys - hopefully this is a quick answer, however I've not found it in search simply because so many people complain about statistics in general....I don't want to weigh in on that....

So anyway. I have a block which I am using to push code onto a page encouraging registration. "Register now, you will be member X" where X is member {number="$stats['member_count']"} plus one. The thing is, that only seems to work in a block set up for member statistics, which this one is not. Can that value be pulled independently?