Rethink the 10,000-a-day step goal; study suggests fewer steps are just as effective

A study led by the University of Sydney suggests that walking 7,000 steps a day offers similar health benefits to walking 10,000, across several outcomes.

Led by Professor Melody Ding from the School of Public Health, the study appears in The Lancet Public Health and analyzed data from 57 studies from 2014 to 2025 that were conducted in more than ten countries, including Australia, the U.S., the UK and Japan.

In this largest and most comprehensive review to date, the researchers examined the impact that different daily step counts have on the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer, and developing diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia and depression. Professor Melody Ding says the findings offer a more achievable benchmark for people who struggle to meet traditional exercise guidelines.

“Aiming for 7,000 steps is a realistic goal based on our findings, which assessed health outcomes in a range of areas that hadn’t been looked at before,” said Professor Ding. “However, for those who cannot yet achieve 7,000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2000 to 4000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gain.

“We know daily step count is linked to living longer, but we now also have evidence that walking at least 7,000 steps a day can significantly improve eight major health outcomes—including reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and depressive symptoms.”

Health benefits at different step counts

The researchers looked at studies in which participants wore step-counting devices, such as pedometers, accelerometers and fitness trackers, to track their daily step counts. Starting at 2,000 steps, experts compared the health outcomes of people walking more steps a day at 1,000-step increments to see whether there was any difference in the risk of early death or other major diseases.

When compared with 2,000 steps a day, researchers found that:

• Walking 7,000 steps a day reduced the risk of death by 47%, which was almost identical to the benefit seen at walking 10,000 steps per day.
• Dementia risk dropped by 38% from walking 7,000 steps a day, with only a 7% extra reduction at 10,000 steps.
• The risk of type 2 diabetes fell by 22% from walking 10,000 steps a day and reduced to 27% at 12,000 steps.
• Significant health improvements were seen when people increased their average daily steps from 2,000 to between 5,000 and 7,000 steps.

“For people who are already active, 10,000 steps a day is great,” said Dr. Katherine Owen, co-author and chief analyst of the study from the School of Public Health. “But beyond 7000 steps, the extra benefits for most of the health outcomes we looked at were modest.”

The researchers are working with the Australian government to use the evidence from this study to inform future updates to physical activity guidelines.

“Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress. Even small increases in daily movement can lead to meaningful health improvements,” said Professor Ding.