Abstract: A garment hanger and counting system has cutouts in the hook portion so a counter can count each hanger even when they are side by side. The counter is not affected by garments supported on the hanger. The hanger has cutouts on an open end side of the hook portion and the neck side of sufficient depth so that a counter counts the hangers whichever way they are hung on a hanging bar. The system includes hangers and a hanger counter with a modulated light source converging beam optics to a focal point, a photodetector to produce a signal from each hanger, and an indicator to determine the number of hangers counted.