In a Coxeter group $W$, an element is fully commutative if any two of its reduced expressions can be linked by a series of commutation of adjacent letters. These elements have particularly nice combinatorial properties, and also index a basis of the generalized Temperley--Lieb algebra attached to $W$. We give two results about the sequence counting these elements with respect to their Coxeter length. First we prove that it always satisfies a linear recurrence with constant coefficients, by showing that reduced expressions of fully commutative elements form a regular language. Then we classify those groups $W$ for which the sequence is ultimately periodic, extending a result of Stembridge. These results are applied to the growth of generalized Temperley--Lieb algebras.