According to an analysis, less daily steps are needed than was once believed in order to experience health benefits from walking.

A study determined that walking at least 3967 daily steps began reducing any cause of mortality risk; with 2337 steps per day lowering cardiovascular diseases mortality risks.

This analysis, comprising 226,889 individuals from 17 different worldwide studies, revealed that health benefits increase exponentially with each additional step walked. Cardiovascular disease risk declines dramatically for every 500 to 1000 steps taken more.

One increase of 1000 daily steps was associated with a 15% reduced risk of any cause of death; an increase of 500 steps daily led to a 7% lower risk of cardiovascular disease death.

Studies showed that even when individuals walked as many as 20,000 steps each day, the health benefits continued to increase exponentially – no upper limit has yet been identified.

Results show that more steps taken are more beneficial, regardless of gender or age, regardless of climate region (temperate, subpolar or tropical), or mix climate regions.

Analysis conducted by researchers suggests that taking just 4,000 steps a day could reduce any cause of death and even less for cardiovascular disease deaths.

There is ample evidence that living an inactive lifestyle contributes to an increase in premature deaths and cardiovascular diseases, with research confirming inadequate physical activity affecting over 25% of global populations – more women than men, as well as individuals from higher-income countries than lower-income countries, don’t get sufficient physical activity.

Physical inactivity is one of the primary causes of death worldwide according to WHO data, accounting for an estimated annual death count of 3.2 million individuals. Physical activity declined significantly following the COVID-19 pandemic and has not fully recovered as expected.

Uncertainties have existed regarding the optimal number of steps necessary before experiencing health benefits, and their upper limit as this relates to overall wellbeing.

There was limited data on up to 20,000 daily step counts; therefore, these results should be confirmed with larger groups.

This meta-analysis not only assessed the benefits of walking up to 20,000 steps daily, but also considered any differences based on gender, age and country of residence of individuals involved.

Studies analyzed tracked their participants for an average of seven years; participants averaged 64 years old with 49% being female participants.

Individuals 60 years or older saw less risk reduction when compared to those younger than 60.

Studies found a 42% risk reduction among older individuals walking between 6,000 and 10,000 daily steps, and 49% in younger participants between 7,000 and 13,000 daily steps.

The strength of this meta-analysis lies in its size and not being limited to studies with at most 16,000 daily steps, though as an observational study it could not establish that increasing step counts led directly to reduced risks of death – only that an increase was linked with one.

Step counts were not tested on individuals suffering from various diseases; all participants in studies analyzed were generally healthy when starting. Furthermore, differences in socioeconomic status or race could not be taken into account, and counting of steps methods varied between studies.