Use esapced entity to do the compare : Comparison Operator « XSLT stylesheet « XML Tutorial

1. XML Tutorial
2. XSLT stylesheet
3. Comparison Operator

File: Data.xml
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<poem author="jm" year="1667">
  <verse>line 1</verse>
  <verse>line 2</verse>
  <verse>line 3</verse>
  <verse>line 4</verse>
</poem>

File: Transform.xslt
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
  version="1.0">
  <xsl:output method="text" />
  <xsl:template match="poem">
    <xsl:if test="count(verse) &lt; 3">
      The poem has less than 3 verse child elements.
    </xsl:if>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>