return number of rows

[eluser]rochellecanale[/eluser]
hey guys i just want to ask what can i do to return the number of rows in my mysql tables?
ive got an error when i used $query->num_rows(); not actually an error but it returned to '1'? here's my code hope you can help me.

my view

Code:

<tr>
   <td>&lt;?php echo "Total Records: ".$totalsales ?&gt;</td>
</tr>

my model function

Code:

public function countTotalSalesRecord(){
     $query = $this->db->query("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tbl_membership_sales");
     return $query;
}

my controller

Code:

public function viewMemberSales(){
      $data['memsales'] = $this->sales_model->getAllMembershipSales();
      $data['totalsales'] = $this->sales_model->countTotalSalesRecord();
      $this->load->view('sites/membershipsales',$data);
}

===========================================================================================
it results to Total Records: 1