“And what makes you thing this point changes how halacha treats the count?”
The count is not being done by Jews. There is no isur for non-Jews to count.
“One that this in fact occured”
The first recorded census was in Egypt, prior to the arrival of Avraham Avinu! Censuses were later conducted by Rome, by the Arab Umayyad Caliphs, by William I of England, and by the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in Eretz Yisrael. The last four included Jews among the counted.