"select max/count(id)" not using index

Hi.

I have a table with 24k records and btree index on column 'id'. Is this
normal, that 'select max(id)' or 'select count(id)' causes a sequential
scan? It takes over 24 seconds (on a pretty fast machine):

=> explain ANALYZE select max(id) from ogloszenia;
QUERY PLAN
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Aggregate (cost=3511.05..3511.05 rows=1 width=4) (actual
time=24834.629..24834.629 rows=1 loops=1)
-> Seq Scan on ogloszenia (cost=0.00..3473.04 rows=15204 width=4)
(actual time=0.013..24808.377 rows=16873 loops=1)
Total runtime: 24897.897 ms

Maybe it's caused by a number of varchar fields in this table? However,
'id' column is 'integer' and is primary key.

Clustering table on index created on 'id' makes such a queries
many faster, but they still use a sequential scan.

Richard.

--
"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they
fight you. Then you win." - Mohandas Gandhi.