In mips architecture, the program counter is:
a register that stores the next instruction to be executed
a register that stores the address of the next instruction to be executed
a binary counter that counts how many instructions have been executed
a control circuit that steps through a sequence of instructions
a register that stores the current location in memory to read and write from

A register that stores the address of the next instruction to be executed

Explanation: Program counter is register of the CPU(central processing unit) .It contains the memory address of the instruction that is to be executed in next turn after the present instruction is executed.This is also known as the instruction pointer .The cycle followed by the counter is fetch ,decode and execute.

Other options are incorrect because it does not store next instruction,does not count number of instruction or stores the memory for reading and writing.It also does not act as a control circuit.