How could I count the number of words in my .txt file?

Here is the code I have, but it doesn't seem to work:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use warnings;
use strict;

my($count, $pattern);

my $input = shift;

$pattern = \b\w+\b;

open(FILE,"$input") or
    die "Error: $!\n";
    
$count = 0;

while(<FILE>)
{
    if(/$pattern/)
    {
        $count++;
    }
}


print "Word Count = ", $count, "\n\n";
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Any suggestions?