For most adults, 5 km is somewhere between about 6,000 and 8,500 steps. The exact number depends on one thing: how long your step is. Here is the simple arithmetic, a two-minute way to find your own number, and what research says about how many steps a day are worth aiming for.
01The arithmetic
A step is the distance from one heel to the other heel as you walk. Steps for a distance is just that distance divided by your step length. A kilometre is 1,000 metres, so:
| Your step | Steps in 1 km | Steps in 5 km |
|---|---|---|
| 60 cm | about 1,670 | about 8,330 |
| 70 cm | about 1,430 | about 7,140 |
| 80 cm | about 1,250 | about 6,250 |
Taller people and faster walkers usually take longer steps, so they need fewer of them. The same person also changes: steps get shorter uphill, in a crowded market or on a rough path, and longer on an open road when you are walking briskly.
02Find your own step length
You do not need a lab. You need a distance you know and a little patience.
- Pick a known distance. One lap of a standard running track is 400 metres. A straight stretch you have measured on a map works too.
- Walk it at your normal pace and count your steps. Do not try to walk well. Walk the way you usually do.
- Divide the distance by the steps. 400 metres in 560 steps is about 0.71 metres, so a 71 cm step.
- Do it twice and take the average. Then 5,000 divided by your step length is your number for 5 km.
If you carry a phone or a watch that counts steps, compare its step count with its distance after a walk. It is doing the same sum.
03How long 5 km takes
A useful marker for pace comes from a 2019 study of adults aged 21 to 40: walking at about 100 steps a minute was a reasonable threshold for moderate intensity, and about 130 steps a minute for vigorous. At 100 steps a minute, 5 km takes a little over an hour for most people: about 63 minutes with an 80 cm step, about 71 with 70 cm, about 83 with 60 cm.
An hour of walking at a steady pace is a full 5 km. Two half-hour walks get you there too.
04Is 10,000 steps the number?
The figure of 10,000 steps a day is everywhere, but the researchers behind a large 2022 analysis in The Lancet Public Health note that there is little evidence behind it. They pooled 15 studies of over 47,000 adults. More steps a day went with a lower risk of dying early, but the benefit levelled off: at around 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for people aged 60 and over, and 8,000 to 10,000 for those under 60.
The World Health Organization puts it in minutes instead: adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity a week. A brisk walk counts. So a daily 5 km, or most of it, sits comfortably inside both ways of measuring.
The more useful lesson is that you do not have to hit a magic number. Going from very few steps to some more is where the research sees the biggest change.
05Where to read more
- Paluch A. E. et al. (2022), Daily steps and all-cause mortality: a meta-analysis of 15 international cohorts, The Lancet Public Health.
- Tudor-Locke C. et al. (2019), Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 21-40 year olds: CADENCE-adults, International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
- World Health Organization, Physical activity fact sheet, and the full WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour (2020).
General information, not medical advice. If you have a heart, lung or joint condition, or have not been active for a while, talk to a doctor before increasing how much you walk.