$re = '/(?<=\<strong>)([0-9]+)(?=\s*<\/strong>)/im';
$str = 'There are <strong>54</strong> 12cities
There are <strong>54 wee wee we</sstrong> 12cities
There are <strong>54</stron2g> 12cities
There are <strong>5433d</strong> 12cities
There are <strong>54 </strong> 12cities
';
preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php