This many steps per day are enough for good health

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More physical activity is definitely better than a sedentary lifestyle. But the old “unofficial” goal of 10,000 steps per day does not have to be achieved. An international team of scientists has found that the most critical positive health effects occur even with 7,000 steps a day: lower mortality, fewer cardiovascular diseases, and much more.

“Although 10,000 steps per day may still be a feasible goal for those who are more active, 7,000 steps per day is associated with clinically significant improvements in health outcomes and may be a more realistic and achievable goal for some people,” wrote the international authors of a systematic review and recent analysis of the current scientific literature on “Daily steps and health consequences in adults,” which has now been published in The Lancet Public Health.

Australian social medicine specialist Ding Ding (University of Sydney Faculty of Medicine) and his co-authors from Spain, the UK, and Norway analyzed scientific studies published between early 2014 and mid-February 2025 on the question of how the number of steps taken each day affects people’s health. The aim was also to fill gaps in existing knowledge on the subject. In their publication (https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00164-1), the scientists state: “Despite the rapid increase in evidence over the past decade on daily steps taken and their health outcomes, existing systematic reviews have primarily focused on a few outcomes, such as all-cause mortality (mortality from all causes; note).”

Even modest amounts of walking have an effect

The researchers dug up a total of 57 published scientific papers on the subject. Thirty-one of the studies were included in the joint re-analysis. Compared to walking 2,000 steps per day, the positive effects were found to begin in the range of 5,000 to 7,000 steps per day. “First, even modest daily step counts were associated with health benefits. Second, 7,000 steps per day were associated with significant risk reductions in most outcomes compared to 2,000 steps per day. Third, although health risks continued to decline with more than 7,000 steps per day, some of the results plateaued.”

Here are the results of comparing the daily walking performance of 2,000 steps versus 7,000 steps: Overall mortality (all causes) was 47 percent lower in the group with more exercise. At the same time, the higher daily step count resulted in a quarter fewer cardiovascular diseases and a 47 percent lower cardiovascular mortality rate.

Dementia risk down 38 percent

Although more exercise only resulted in a statistically insignificant six percent decrease in the incidence of cancer, cancer mortality fell by 37 percent. Type 2 diabetes occurred 14 percent less frequently when 7,000 steps per day were taken. The risk of dementia declined by 38 percent, while the rate of depression was 22 percent lower. The increased walking also led to improved fitness in other ways: the incidence of falls, which can often be fatal, especially for elderly people, decreased by 28 percent.

The groups of test subjects analyzed were large, ranging from more than 60,000 to around 160,000 subjects for each of the individual health-related effects. This underscores the significance of the results. According to the graphs in the publication, for example, the frequency of cardiovascular disease and dementia plateaued at very high daily step counts, which was related to the positive effect of physical activity.