PHP if statement within for loop does not return correctly

I have a basic for-loop that returns some data from an Array. Inside the for-loop I have some if statements that will output data based on the results of a count() query.

So if I run the basic function,

<?php
$count_regions = count($location);
echo($count_regions);
?>

it returns the the correct counts, eg, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2,.

However, I'm now trying to add the following conditions,

                    <?php
                    $count_regions = count($location);
                    $the_spot = "1";
                    if ($count_regions = "1") {
                        $count_debug = "1";
                    }
                    if ($count_regions = "2") {
                        $count_debug = "2";

                    }
                    if ($count_regions = "3") {
                        $count_debug = "3";

                    }

                    if ($count_regions > "3") {
                        $count_debug = "more than 3";

                    }

                    echo($count_debug);
                    ?>

Now it returns 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, .... as opposed to the expected 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2,.

Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong?