In the 1960s an early pedometer company embarked on a marketing campaign that established the popularity of 10,000 steps per day as the target level of activity for the average adult. Over the years this number has become the marker for how people define their activity levels — it is ingrained in our minds and culture — we see it as a default on health trackers and even the CDC includes this number as a benchmark in some of their materials. But is it really necessary to walk 10,000 steps daily to maintain good health?

What the research shows

Over the years, researchers have tried to explore the relationship between activity levels and health. We do know that a sedentary lifestyle is associated with worse health outcomes, but no specific number has been established as the right amount of steps to achieve optimal health. Luckily, research suggests that health benefits occur at step counts much lower than 10,000.

A recent study sought to investigate this question. The researchers performed a meta-analysis to explore the end points of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality with respect to step count. They ultimately reviewed 17 studies totaling 226,889 people who were either classified as healthy or as having some cardiovascular disease risk (diabetes, hypertension, obesity, smoking history). Study participants had an average age of 64.4 with 48.9% identifying as female. The researchers found the following:

• For every 1000 step increment above 3867 steps, there was a 15% decrease in all-cause mortality

• For every 500 step increment beyond 2337 steps, there was a 7% reduction in cardiovascular mortality

These findings suggest that 10,000 steps is not necessarily the only path to health. Overall, more steps is definitely better, but perhaps the number needed to affect change is much lower than we think. If you’re starting at a low number of steps, you don’t have to increase your step count by too much to dramatically reduce your cardiovascular disease risk.

So how far exactly is 10,000 steps?

This will vary from person to person as everyone’s stride length is different. The average adult will have a step-to-step length of about 26 inches (for women) or 30 inches (for men). This translates to about 2436 steps in one mile for women and 2112 for men. With some math we can see that the average person would walk anywhere between 4-5 miles after taking 10,000 steps, but according to the research study described above, you could start to see health benefits with a little over a mile per day.

How does your step count compare to the average adult?

A 2017 study explored world-wide activity trends. The average step count in the US was found to be 4774, but as you can see in the chart below, this number can vary widely based on different factors, such as age/sex:

Although all of the research does not tell us exactly how many steps are optimal for any one individual, one thing is certain: improving our activity levels can have many health benefits!