Checking your fitness app throughout the day to see if you’ve hit 10,000 steps may be moot.
That goal, despite its popularity, is actually a remnant of a Japanese pedometer marketing campaign from the 1960s — not a result of scientific studies.
During the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, a company sold a pedometer with a name that roughly translated to “10,000 steps meter.” Not because they knew that was the proper number of steps to take, but because the Japanese characters for “10,000” look similar to a person walking.
Studies on the claim have since been published and suggest it has health benefits. However, a recent scientific analysis published in The Lancet Public Health journal suggests you can reduce your daily step goal and still see similar benefits.
Researchers analyzed medical data from 57 scientific studies from 2014 to 2025, which were conducted across more than 10 countries, including the United States.
They found that a goal of 7,000 steps a day is more attainable while still being highly beneficial to health.
Specifically, walking 7,000 steps per day was associated with a 47% lower risk of an early death from any cause, when compared with walking 2,000 steps per day. That benefit is virtually the same as the 48% decrease associated with taking 10,000 steps a day.
For most of the other causes of death and diseases that the researchers analyzed, 10,000 steps a day yielded only moderately more benefits.
For example, walking 7,000 steps per day was associated with a 38% lower risk of dementia, when compared with 2,000 steps. But 10,000 steps was associated with a 45% lower risk (an improvement of 18%).
Even if 7,000 isn’t a realistic number for you, smaller increases in daily step count demonstrate health benefits.
In a summary of the findings, study co-author Melody Ding of the University of Sydney in Australia says:
“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. However, for those who cannot yet achieve 7,000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2,000 to 4,000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gain.”
There are situations in which walking 10,000 steps a day is worth the extra mile, however.
For example, the analysis found that walking 7,000 steps per day was associated with a 14% lower risk of Type 2 diabetes, compared with 2,000 steps. But walking 10,000 steps was associated with a 22% lower risk — an improvement of more than 50%.
The University of Sydney analysis is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind to date.
Still, the researchers say more studies are needed to further explore the effects of different step goals on various groups of people, such as those of different ages or regions. Longer-term data also is needed, they say.
For more on the benefits of 7,000 steps a day, check out “Here’s How Many Daily Steps It Takes to Lower Your Cancer Risk.”
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