diff --git a/src/VariableNetworkNode.cc b/src/VariableNetworkNode.cc
index 79d3d25c5822f993f3f762d700c793739e4c905b..f2978f254c084e0839032265587dbf71e24e90ee 100644
--- a/src/VariableNetworkNode.cc
+++ b/src/VariableNetworkNode.cc
@@ -188,6 +188,10 @@ namespace ChimeraTK {
     // add sub-element containing the description
     xmlpp::Element *descriptionElement = variable->add_child("description");
     descriptionElement->set_child_text(pdata->network->getDescription());
+
+    // add sub-element containing the description
+    xmlpp::Element *nElementsElement = variable->add_child("numberOfElements");
+    nElementsElement->set_child_text(std::to_string(pdata->network->getFeedingNode().getNumberOfElements()));
   }
 
   /*********************************************************************************************************************/
diff --git a/xmlschema/application.xsd b/xmlschema/application.xsd
index fd7913c76a9bbaf115df37f4fca0ee8dd6689a13..c94ebc26fcdef29eaf6b509370c589cc9e90ef94 100644
--- a/xmlschema/application.xsd
+++ b/xmlschema/application.xsd
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@
       <xsd:element name="direction" type="DirectionType" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
       <xsd:element name="unit" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
       <xsd:element name="description" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
+      <xsd:element name="numberOfElements" type="xsd:integer" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
     </xsd:sequence>
     <xsd:attribute name="name" type="xsd:string" use="required"/>
   </xsd:complexType>