Select count(*) from multiple tables

SELECT  (
        SELECT COUNT(*)
        FROM   tab1
        ) AS count1,
        (
        SELECT COUNT(*)
        FROM   tab2
        ) AS count2
FROM    dual

Just because it's slightly different:

SELECT 'table_1' AS table_name, COUNT(*) FROM table_1
UNION
SELECT 'table_2' AS table_name, COUNT(*) FROM table_2
UNION
SELECT 'table_3' AS table_name, COUNT(*) FROM table_3

It gives the answers transposed (one row per table instead of one column), otherwise I don't think it's much different. I think performance-wise they should be equivalent.

As additional information, to accomplish same thing in SQL Server, you just need to remove the "FROM dual" part of the query.