Daily steps
About 7,000 steps a day went with roughly half the death rate of 2,000.
What you'll need
- On an iPhone, open Health, tap Browse, then Activity, then Steps, and choose M to see your daily average for the month.
- On Android, open your health or fitness app, such as Samsung Health or Fitbit, and find your average steps for the past month.
- A phone only counts steps while it's with you; a watch or band counts more of the day. Use whichever you carry most.
Your result
Enter your average steps and your age.
Nothing you enter leaves this page unless you save your result.
What the research found
Pooling 15 cohorts of 47,471 adults followed for a median of 7.1 years, the quarter of people taking the most steps (a median of 10,901 a day) had 53% lower death rates than the quarter taking the fewest (3,553). Risk stopped falling at 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for people 60 and over, and at 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults. A 2025 review of 24 cohorts found 7,000 steps a day went with 47% lower death rates than 2,000, and another, of 17 cohorts, found each extra 1,000 steps a day went with 15% lower death rates.
Studied in: 47,471 adults in 15 international cohorts, followed for about 7 years.
- Paluch AE et al. Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts. Lancet Public Health. 2022;7(3):e219-28. PubMed
- Ding D et al. Daily steps and health outcomes in adults: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health. 2025;10(8):e668-81. PubMed
- Banach M et al. The association between daily step count and all-cause and cardiovascular mortality: a meta-analysis. Eur J Prev Cardiol. 2023;30(18):1975-85. PubMed