Correlated search filtering

Hi,

I have items that user can do filter them by several filters;
I want to show number of items by the name of filter;
For example there is a city filter that filters items by city. I want to show number of items next to city name:
All cities (101)
istanbul (50)
ankara (20)
.
.
.

If user does another filtering The numbers above need to be updated accordingly;

In DB each filtering information is in different tables. I don't use tagging/labeling (should I use?). 
Currently I tried to do with joins. as the number of filters increase the more complicated getting those db queries.

Is there better way to achieve this result?

Thanks in advance

This article has some good information on it.

MySQL SQL Syntax and Use

SEE: Retrieving from Multiple Tables with UNION

What did you Try? What did you Get? What did you Expect?

Joined CodeIgniter Community 2009.  ( Skype: insitfx )

This article has some good information on it.

MySQL SQL Syntax and Use

SEE: Retrieving from Multiple Tables with UNION

Thanks, I will check it out