The short answer: most adults take about 2,000 to 2,600 steps to walk a mile, or about 1,250 to 1,600 per kilometre. A common working figure for someone about 173 cm (5'8") is 2,250 steps per mile. The exact number depends mainly on your height and, to a smaller degree, your pace, and you can measure your own in a few minutes.
Steps per mile by height
Pedometers and step-counting apps usually estimate step length as about 0.413 times height for women and 0.415 times height for men, then divide a mile (1,609 metres) by it. The table uses 0.414. This is a convention, not a measurement of you: in a 2025 study of 313 healthy adults, the ratio of step length to height ranged from about 0.41 to 0.47, which is a spread of more than 10% either way.
| Height | Steps per mile (estimate) | Steps per km (estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| 5'0" (152 cm) | 2,560 | 1,590 |
| 5'4" (163 cm) | 2,380 | 1,480 |
| 5'8" (173 cm) | 2,250 | 1,400 |
| 6'0" (183 cm) | 2,120 | 1,320 |
| 6'4" (193 cm) | 2,010 | 1,250 |
So a person 152 cm tall takes about a quarter more steps per mile than someone 193 cm tall, which is why two people walking together can end up with different step counts on the same route. The earlier page's height table agreed with this convention; we've kept it as an estimate.
Does pace matter?
Yes, a little. As you walk faster, your step gets longer up to a point, and the rest of the extra speed comes from taking steps more often. So brisk walking usually takes somewhat fewer steps per mile than a stroll. The earlier page gave exact numbers for each pace, such as 2,370 steps a mile at 2 mph and 2,000 at 4 mph, and for running, but we couldn't verify them, so we've left them out. Speed is cadence multiplied by step length: at a 0.72 m step, 100 steps a minute is about 72 metres a minute and 120 steps a minute is about 86 metres a minute, ignoring the lengthening of the step, so real speeds at those cadences are a bit higher. For what cadence means for intensity, see power walking. We have no figure for how much running changes steps per mile, and running is a different gait, so use your tracker for it.
How to work out your own number
The simplest method is to walk a known distance at your normal pace while counting steps, or to let a step counter do it. A standard 400 m running track is four laps to a mile (more precisely, 4 laps is 1,600 m, a little short of a mile) or 2.5 laps to a kilometre. The alternative is to measure your step length: walk 10 steps, measure the distance and divide by 10. Then steps per mile equal 1,609 divided by your step length in metres. A step of 0.71 m gives about 2,266 steps per mile.
Converting step goals into distance
Using 2,250 steps per mile, here is what common goals come to. Times use cadences of 100 to 120 steps a minute, from the CADENCE-Adults research on moderate to brisk walking.
| Step goal | Miles (at 2,250 steps per mile) | Kilometres | Walking time at 100 to 120 steps/min |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5,000 | about 2.2 | about 3.6 | 42 to 50 min |
| 7,000 | about 3.1 | about 5.0 | 58 to 70 min |
| 8,000 | about 3.6 | about 5.7 | 67 to 80 min |
| 10,000 | about 4.4 | about 7.2 | 83 to 100 min |
| 12,000 | about 5.3 | about 8.6 | 100 to 120 min |
For how many steps are worth aiming for, see how many steps you need, and for how to get there, how to walk 10,000 steps. How far is 10,000 steps covers that goal in more detail.
Terrain
The earlier page said slopes, sand, trails and snow change your steps per mile by 50 to 150. We couldn't source that figure. It's plausible that uneven or soft ground and crowded pavements shorten steps, but we don't have numbers. How accurate your counter is matters as well: in a 2015 JAMA test, phone apps were within about 7% of an observer's count on a treadmill (see treadmill vs outdoor walking).
Sources
- Pedometer step-length convention (0.413 x height for women, 0.415 x height for men), as described by step-length calculators; includes a 2025 Sensors study of 313 adults with step-length-to-height ratios of about 0.41 to 0.47. getfitcraft.com
- Tudor-Locke C, et al. Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 21-40 year olds: CADENCE-adults. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2019. PMC
- Case MA, Burwick HA, Volpp KG, Patel MS. Accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices for tracking physical activity data. JAMA. 2015;313(6):625-626. jamanetwork.com
Correction note: an earlier version of this page gave steps per mile at specific paces (2,370 at 2 mph, 2,250 at 3 mph, 2,000 at 4 mph, and figures for jogging and running), said terrain adds or subtracts 50 to 150 steps per mile, and stated a typical stride of 0.71 m as fact. We could not verify the pace and terrain figures, so they were removed; the height table matched the pedometer convention and is kept as an estimate. The convention and the 2025 step-length study are taken from calculator pages rather than primary papers. This article is for informational purposes and does not replace medical advice. This is general information, not medical advice.