ROW_COUNT() returns the number of rows changed, deleted, or inserted by the last statement if it was an UPDATE, DELETE, or INSERT.

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For UPDATE statements, the affected-rows value by default is the number of rows actually changed. If you specify the CLIENT_FOUND_ROWS flag to mysql_real_connect() when connecting to mysqld, the affected-rows value is the number of rows “found”; that is, matched by the WHERE clause.

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Important
ROW_COUNT() is not replicated reliably.

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my $rows = $dbh->selectrow_array( 'select row_count()' );