diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.test.tsx b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.test.tsx
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1292fdbd57a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.test.tsx
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+import { totalFromStats } from './RuleStats';
+
+describe('RuleStats', () => {
+  it('should count 0', () => {
+    expect(
+      totalFromStats({
+        alerting: 0,
+        error: 0,
+        inactive: 0,
+        nodata: 0,
+        paused: 0,
+        pending: 0,
+        recording: 0,
+      })
+    ).toBe(0);
+  });
+
+  it('should count rules', () => {
+    expect(
+      totalFromStats({
+        alerting: 2,
+        error: 0,
+        inactive: 0,
+        nodata: 0,
+        paused: 0,
+        pending: 2,
+        recording: 2,
+      })
+    ).toBe(6);
+  });
+
+  it('should not count rule health as a rule', () => {
+    expect(
+      totalFromStats({
+        alerting: 0,
+        error: 1,
+        inactive: 1,
+        nodata: 0,
+        paused: 0,
+        pending: 0,
+        recording: 0,
+      })
+    ).toBe(1);
+
+    expect(
+      totalFromStats({
+        alerting: 0,
+        error: 0,
+        inactive: 0,
+        nodata: 1,
+        paused: 0,
+        pending: 0,
+        recording: 1,
+      })
+    ).toBe(1);
+
+    expect(
+      totalFromStats({
+        alerting: 0,
+        error: 0,
+        inactive: 1,
+        nodata: 0,
+        paused: 1,
+        pending: 0,
+        recording: 0,
+      })
+    ).toBe(1);
+  });
+});
diff --git a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.tsx b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.tsx
index f9d67ac072b..bde656c18b9 100644
--- a/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.tsx
+++ b/public/app/features/alerting/unified/components/rules/RuleStats.tsx
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { isUndefined, omitBy, sum } from 'lodash';
+import { isUndefined, omitBy, pick, sum } from 'lodash';
 import pluralize from 'pluralize';
 import React, { Fragment } from 'react';
 
@@ -27,24 +27,12 @@ const emptyStats: Required<AlertGroupTotals> = {
 };
 
 export const RuleStats = ({ namespaces }: Props) => {
-  const stats = { ...emptyStats };
-
-  // sum all totals for all namespaces
-  namespaces.forEach(({ groups }) => {
-    groups.forEach((group) => {
-      const groupTotals = omitBy(group.totals, isUndefined);
-      for (let key in groupTotals) {
-        // @ts-ignore
-        stats[key] += groupTotals[key];
-      }
-    });
-  });
+  const stats = statsFromNamespaces(namespaces);
+  const total = totalFromStats(stats);
 
   const statsComponents = getComponentsFromStats(stats);
   const hasStats = Boolean(statsComponents.length);
 
-  const total = sum(Object.values(stats));
-
   statsComponents.unshift(
     <Fragment key="total">
       {total} {pluralize('rule', total)}
@@ -66,6 +54,32 @@ interface RuleGroupStatsProps {
   group: CombinedRuleGroup;
 }
 
+function statsFromNamespaces(namespaces: CombinedRuleNamespace[]): AlertGroupTotals {
+  const stats = { ...emptyStats };
+
+  // sum all totals for all namespaces
+  namespaces.forEach(({ groups }) => {
+    groups.forEach((group) => {
+      const groupTotals = omitBy(group.totals, isUndefined);
+      for (let key in groupTotals) {
+        // @ts-ignore
+        stats[key] += groupTotals[key];
+      }
+    });
+  });
+
+  return stats;
+}
+
+export function totalFromStats(stats: AlertGroupTotals): number {
+  // countable stats will pick only the states that indicate a single rule – health indicators like "error" and "nodata" should
+  // not be counted because they are already counted by their state
+  const countableStats = pick(stats, ['alerting', 'pending', 'inactive', 'recording']);
+  const total = sum(Object.values(countableStats));
+
+  return total;
+}
+
 export const RuleGroupStats = ({ group }: RuleGroupStatsProps) => {
   const stats = group.totals;
   const evaluationInterval = group?.interval;