You’ve probably heard that you should aim for 10,000 steps per day to stay healthy. But is that number backed by science?

Globally, 1 in 3 adults is not physically active enough – not meeting the minimum recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity activity, or an equivalent combination per week.¹

One barrier to being more active is the belief that anything short of these targets isn’t worth it.

But that’s not true!

Even small amounts of physical activity can have meaningful health benefits.

Take the widely advocated goal of 10,000 daily steps, for example. You don’t have to take remotely close to 10,000 daily steps for it to be worthwhile.

The health benefits from the first 5,000 steps are about double the next 5,000 steps. That is, there’s a twofold greater reduction in relative risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular disease going from 0 to 5,000 steps/d than going from 5,000 to 10,000 steps/d.²

In a 2025 systematic review, compared to 2,000 steps per day, 7,000 steps per day was associated with 6‒47% risk reductions across most outcomes. A goal of 7,000 daily steps may be more achievable for some people, but 10,000 daily steps can still be a goal for those who are more active.³

So, if you’re just getting started, don’t worry about hitting 10,000 – anything is better than nothing and the biggest gains come early.

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References:

1. Strain et al. (2024) (PMID: 38942042)
2. Sheng et al. (2021) (PMID: 34547483)
3. Ding et al. (2025) (PMID: 40713949)