diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 54ffe5b201..e4849d3b30 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 4.0
+ * Take sstable references before calculating approximate key count (CASSANDRA-14647)
  * Restore snapshotting of system keyspaces on version change (CASSANDRA-14412)
  * Fix AbstractBTreePartition locking in java 11 (CASSANDRA-14607)
  * SimpleClient should pass connection properties as options (CASSANDRA-15056)
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/format/SSTableReader.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/format/SSTableReader.java
index 01e30d6ee5..ca6eb8540a 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/format/SSTableReader.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/format/SSTableReader.java
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ import java.util.*;
 import java.util.concurrent.*;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicLong;
-import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
 import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
 import com.google.common.collect.Iterables;
@@ -293,6 +292,7 @@ public abstract class SSTableReader extends SSTable implements SelfRefCounted<SS
         // if something went wrong above or cardinality is not available, calculate using index summary
         if (count < 0)
         {
+            count = 0;
             for (SSTableReader sstable : sstables)
                 count += sstable.estimatedKeys();
         }
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/TableMetrics.java b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/TableMetrics.java
index 41771d116d..c854c43c7c 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/TableMetrics.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/cassandra/metrics/TableMetrics.java
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ import org.apache.cassandra.db.ColumnFamilyStore;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.Keyspace;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.Memtable;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.lifecycle.SSTableSet;
+import org.apache.cassandra.db.lifecycle.View;
 import org.apache.cassandra.index.SecondaryIndexManager;
 import org.apache.cassandra.io.compress.CompressionMetadata;
 import org.apache.cassandra.io.sstable.format.SSTableReader;
@@ -505,7 +506,11 @@ public class TableMetrics
                                                            long memtablePartitions = 0;
                                                            for (Memtable memtable : cfs.getTracker().getView().getAllMemtables())
                                                                memtablePartitions += memtable.partitionCount();
-                                                           return SSTableReader.getApproximateKeyCount(cfs.getSSTables(SSTableSet.CANONICAL)) + memtablePartitions;
+                                                           try(ColumnFamilyStore.RefViewFragment refViewFragment = cfs.selectAndReference(View.selectFunction(SSTableSet.CANONICAL)))
+                                                           {
+                                                               return SSTableReader.getApproximateKeyCount(refViewFragment.sstables) + memtablePartitions;
+                                                           }
+
                                                        }
                                                    });
         estimatedColumnCountHistogram = Metrics.register(factory.createMetricName("EstimatedColumnCountHistogram"),
diff --git a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableReaderTest.java b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableReaderTest.java
index c1558425f2..580b099bda 100644
--- a/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableReaderTest.java
+++ b/test/unit/org/apache/cassandra/io/sstable/SSTableReaderTest.java
@@ -27,7 +27,6 @@ import java.util.*;
 import java.util.concurrent.*;
 
 import com.google.common.collect.Sets;
-import org.junit.Assert;
 import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 import org.junit.Test;
 import org.junit.runner.RunWith;
@@ -40,6 +39,8 @@ import org.apache.cassandra.db.*;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.CompactionManager;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.compaction.OperationType;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.lifecycle.LifecycleTransaction;
+import org.apache.cassandra.db.lifecycle.SSTableSet;
+import org.apache.cassandra.db.lifecycle.View;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.partitions.UnfilteredPartitionIterators;
 import org.apache.cassandra.db.rows.Row;
 import org.apache.cassandra.dht.IPartitioner;
@@ -55,8 +56,8 @@ import org.apache.cassandra.schema.KeyspaceParams;
 import org.apache.cassandra.service.CacheService;
 import org.apache.cassandra.utils.ByteBufferUtil;
 import org.apache.cassandra.utils.FilterFactory;
-import static org.apache.cassandra.cql3.QueryProcessor.executeInternal;
 
+import static org.apache.cassandra.cql3.QueryProcessor.executeInternal;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
@@ -761,4 +762,22 @@ public class SSTableReaderTest
         cfs.forceBlockingFlush();
         return Sets.difference(cfs.getLiveSSTables(), before).iterator().next();
     }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testGetApproximateKeyCount() throws InterruptedException
+    {
+        Keyspace keyspace = Keyspace.open(KEYSPACE1);
+        ColumnFamilyStore cfs = keyspace.getColumnFamilyStore("Standard1");
+        cfs.discardSSTables(System.currentTimeMillis()); //Cleaning all existing SSTables.
+        getNewSSTable(cfs);
+
+        try (ColumnFamilyStore.RefViewFragment viewFragment1 = cfs.selectAndReference(View.selectFunction(SSTableSet.CANONICAL)))
+        {
+            cfs.discardSSTables(System.currentTimeMillis());
+
+            TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.sleep(1000); //Giving enough time to clear files.
+            List<SSTableReader> sstables = new ArrayList<>(viewFragment1.sstables);
+            assertEquals(50, SSTableReader.getApproximateKeyCount(sstables));
+        }
+    }
 }