My Catalog, My Catalog I, My Catalog I I

How are you measuring the number of files in the catalog?  The number that appears in the lower left of the window is the number of files that are visibile in the grid.  This may be a different number than images in the catalog.  For example, stacked or version set photos only count as 1 unless the stack or version set has been expanded.

When you convert a catalog from one version of Elements to another (including when you restore an older version's backup catalog to a newer version of Elements), a copy of the older catalog is made and given a numeric suffix.  These catalog folders do not take up very much space on your computer so I would recommend that you keep them as backups.  You can however move the folders to a different drive if you wish.  If you really want to delete them, make sure that you are deleting the older ones, not your current Elements 2024 catalog.