diff --git a/src/Selenium2Library/keywords/_element.py b/src/Selenium2Library/keywords/_element.py
index 9991961b3..3a461a74f 100644
--- a/src/Selenium2Library/keywords/_element.py
+++ b/src/Selenium2Library/keywords/_element.py
@@ -622,9 +622,12 @@ def page_should_not_contain_image(self, locator, message='', loglevel='INFO'):
 
     # Public, xpath
 
-    def get_matching_xpath_count(self, xpath):
+    def get_matching_xpath_count(self, xpath, return_str=True):
         """Returns number of elements matching `xpath`
 
+        The default return type is `str` but it can changed to `int` by setting
+        the ``return_str`` argument to Python False.
+
         One should not use the xpath= prefix for 'xpath'. XPath is assumed.
 
         Correct:
@@ -636,7 +639,7 @@ def get_matching_xpath_count(self, xpath):
         `Xpath Should Match X Times`.
         """
         count = len(self._element_find("xpath=" + xpath, False, False))
-        return str(count)
+        return str(count) if return_str else count
 
     def xpath_should_match_x_times(self, xpath, expected_xpath_count, message='', loglevel='INFO'):
         """Verifies that the page contains the given number of elements located by the given `xpath`.
diff --git a/test/acceptance/keywords/elements.robot b/test/acceptance/keywords/elements.robot
index 4210418f2..47e9de174 100644
--- a/test/acceptance/keywords/elements.robot
+++ b/test/acceptance/keywords/elements.robot
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 Documentation     Tests elements
 Test Setup        Go To Page "links.html"
 Resource          ../resource.robot
+Library           String
 
 *** Test Cases ***
 Get Elements
@@ -61,6 +62,12 @@ Get Matching XPath Count
     [Documentation]    Get Matching XPath Count
     ${count}=    Get Matching XPath Count    //a
     Should Be Equal    ${count}    19
+    ${count}=    Get Matching XPath Count    //a    ${True}
+    Should Be Equal    ${count}    19
+    Should Be String    ${count}
+    ${count}=    Get Matching XPath Count    //a    ${False}
+    Should Be Equal    ${count}    ${19}
+    Should Not Be String    ${count}
     ${count}=    Get Matching XPath Count    //div[@id="first_div"]/a
     Should Be Equal    ${count}    2