Count number of dates in a column that are less than 31/9/17 including blank cells

Hi

I was expecting that this formula =COUNTIFS($S$3:$S$500,"<"& D$4) would include the count of blank cells in the result, but it doesn't appear to.

I assumed that a blank cell would be a value of less than 31/9/18

Column S = list of dates
Cell D4 is the date that the I want to count the entries in column S if they are less than this

Any advice would be great thanks

If blanks are not counting, try this:

=COUNTIF($S$3:$S$500,"<"& D$4)+COUNTIF($S$3:$S$500,"")

You’re welcome!