Counting cells - changing criteria

[Xcelfan]

Happy new year everyone

I am trying to figure out how to formulate a countif or similar function that would count the number of cells which would work with changing criteria and accomplish the following scenario.

As you see in the attached image the left column contains the variables and the right column contains the instances each variable occurs individually.

The range is always constant
Though the criteria is ever changing the variables are always numeric and descending (although the example shows the variables ascending)

Any feedback would be much appreciated.