diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
index 65a3dd7ffac30c229a5d4d5591756fc631d9ec6f..35f79b48e8dc9b0b2cce72f30e660f3952487e4f 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-stat.c
@@ -1631,23 +1631,13 @@ static int perf_stat_init_aggr_mode(void)
 
 static void cpu_aggr_map__delete(struct cpu_aggr_map *map)
 {
-	if (map) {
-		WARN_ONCE(refcount_read(&map->refcnt) != 0,
-			  "cpu_aggr_map refcnt unbalanced\n");
-		free(map);
-	}
-}
-
-static void cpu_aggr_map__put(struct cpu_aggr_map *map)
-{
-	if (map && refcount_dec_and_test(&map->refcnt))
-		cpu_aggr_map__delete(map);
+	free(map);
 }
 
 static void perf_stat__exit_aggr_mode(void)
 {
-	cpu_aggr_map__put(stat_config.aggr_map);
-	cpu_aggr_map__put(stat_config.cpus_aggr_map);
+	cpu_aggr_map__delete(stat_config.aggr_map);
+	cpu_aggr_map__delete(stat_config.cpus_aggr_map);
 	stat_config.aggr_map = NULL;
 	stat_config.cpus_aggr_map = NULL;
 }
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/cpumap.c b/tools/perf/util/cpumap.c
index 6a270d640acb906118e1eba431864be8db9935b2..27094211edd8a8a9bff8cd9a200ad0ffd8df5dc5 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cpumap.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cpumap.c
@@ -180,8 +180,6 @@ struct cpu_aggr_map *cpu_aggr_map__empty_new(int nr)
 		cpus->nr = nr;
 		for (i = 0; i < nr; i++)
 			cpus->map[i] = aggr_cpu_id__empty();
-
-		refcount_set(&cpus->refcnt, 1);
 	}
 
 	return cpus;
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/cpumap.h b/tools/perf/util/cpumap.h
index 26cf76c693f5ea3e6861f727126f731f92e33525..ee0f6139b04a1cb5ae884f095794974b1b7a8ff9 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/cpumap.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/cpumap.h
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <perf/cpumap.h>
-#include <linux/refcount.h>
 
 /** Identify where counts are aggregated, -1 implies not to aggregate. */
 struct aggr_cpu_id {
@@ -37,7 +36,6 @@ struct aggr_cpu_id {
 
 /** A collection of aggr_cpu_id values, the "built" version is sorted and uniqued. */
 struct cpu_aggr_map {
-	refcount_t refcnt;
 	/** Number of valid entries. */
 	int nr;
 	/** The entries. */