A lifetime on foot
Walking is so automatic that we forget how much of it we do. A few thousand steps a day around the house, to the shops and up the stairs sounds like nothing, but over years it turns into a journey across continents. Most adults have walked further than the distance across the United States, and many have covered the equivalent of a trip right round the planet. The route above shows yours, with famous distances along the way so you can see how far you have come.
The route uses a stretched scale so that a marathon and a trip around the Earth fit on the same line. Each marker you have passed lights up, and the next one shows how far you still have to go.
How we calculate it
We estimate your step length as 41% of your height, the usual rule of thumb for walking. We then multiply your daily steps by the days since your first birthday, when most children start walking, and by your step length. Children take shorter steps but often more of them, so the early years roughly balance out. The result is an estimate, but if you use a phone or watch to track steps you can put your real daily average into the slider for a closer figure.
| Distance | Kilometres | Steps at 70 cm |
|---|---|---|
| Marathon | 42.2 | 60,000 |
| Land’s End to John o’ Groats (by road) | about 1,400 | 2 million |
| New York to Los Angeles (by road) | about 4,500 | 6.4 million |
| Around the Earth at the equator | 40,075 | 57 million |
| To the Moon | 384,400 | 549 million |
Worked example. A 36-year-old who is 170 cm tall and walks 5,000 steps a day has a step of about 70 cm, so walks 3.5 km a day. Since their first birthday, about 12,985 days ago, that adds up to roughly 45,300 km, a little more than once around the Earth.
Every extra thousand counts
Adding 1,000 steps a day, about ten minutes of walking, adds roughly 250 km a year for an average-height adult. Large studies have linked higher daily step counts with better health, with benefits that keep growing up to several thousand steps above what most people do now. You do not need to hit 10,000 to make a difference.
Questions people ask
How many steps does the average person take?
A large smartphone study by Stanford University in 2017 found a worldwide average of about 5,000 steps a day, with big differences between countries. Many trackers set 10,000 as a goal, though health benefits start well below that.
How long is one step?
A walking step is roughly 41% of your height. For someone 170 cm tall that is about 70 cm, so 1,000 steps cover around 700 metres.
Do the 10,000 steps matter?
The 10,000 figure began as a marketing slogan for a Japanese pedometer in the 1960s. Research since then suggests that benefits rise steadily up to roughly 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day for most adults.
Why start counting at age one?
Most babies take their first steps somewhere between nine and fifteen months, so we start at the first birthday.
Sources. Althoff et al. (2017), Nature, Stanford smartphone activity study; step length rule of thumb from exercise physiology references; Earth circumference 40,075 km (NASA). Calculations run in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.