I wrote a query to get month-wise record in user table as follows
SELECT COUNT( `userID` ) AS total, DATE_FORMAT( `userRegistredDate` , \'%b\' ) AS
MONTH , Y
I won't say much about efficiency as I have not tested it against other methods but without having a temp table this seem a fair way to go.
SELECT COUNT(u.userID) AS total, m.month
FROM (
SELECT 'Jan' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Feb' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Mar' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Apr' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'May' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Jun' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Jul' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Aug' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Sep' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Oct' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Nov' AS MONTH
UNION SELECT 'Dec' AS MONTH
) AS m
LEFT JOIN users u
ON MONTH(STR_TO_DATE(CONCAT(m.month, ' 2013'),'%M %Y')) = MONTH(u.userRegistredDate)
AND YEAR(u.userRegistredDate) = '2013'
GROUP BY m.month
ORDER BY 1+1;
If you make the union based on a date format you can even reduce the work and load on the query.
SELECT COUNT(u.userID) AS total, DATE_FORMAT(merge_date,'%b') AS month, YEAR(m.merge_date) AS year
FROM (
SELECT '2013-01-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-02-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-03-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-04-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-05-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-06-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-07-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-08-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-09-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-10-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-11-01' AS merge_date
UNION SELECT '2013-12-01' AS merge_date
) AS m
LEFT JOIN users u
ON MONTH(m.merge_date) = MONTH(u.userRegistredDate)
AND YEAR(m.merge_date) = YEAR(u.userRegistredDate)
GROUP BY m.merge_date
ORDER BY 1+1;
Live DEMO of both queries.