The present disclosure provides methods and systems for ghost cytometry (GC), which may be used to produce an image of an object without using a spatially resolving detector. This may be used to perform image-free ultrafast fluorescence "imaging" cytometry, based on, for example, a single pixel detector. Spatial information obtained from the motion of cells relative to a patterned optical structure may be compressively converted into signals that arrive sequentially at a single pixel detector. Combinatorial use of the temporal waveform with the intensity distribution of the random or pseudo-random pattern may permit computational reconstruction of cell morphology. Machine learning methods may be applied directly to the compressed waveforms without image reconstruction to enable efficient image-free morphology-based cytometry. Image-free GC may achieve accurate and high throughput cell classification as well as selective sorting based on cell morphology without a specific biomarker, which have been challenging using conventional flow cytometers.