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About this tool
Age and sex appropriate daily step targets for children, with WHO active-minute goals and playful progress levels to close the gap.
The Kids Daily Step Goal Planner sets a child's step target from published paediatric pedometer standards rather than the adult 10,000-step rule, and pairs it with the WHO physical activity goal of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a day for ages 5 to 17. For ages 6 to 11 it uses the BMI-referenced standards of 13,000 steps a day for boys and 11,000 for girls; adolescents get 11,000, the mid-point of the published 10,000 to 11,700 range. It then converts whatever is left into minutes of walking, skipping, tag or dancing.
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Targets come from paediatric pedometer research, which puts primary-age children well above the adult 10,000-step figure.
Shows the WHO active-minute goal alongside steps, including the extra 180-minute total activity goal for 3 and 4 year olds.
Converts the remaining steps into minutes of five real play activities at their measured step rates.
Published standards put boys aged 6 to 11 at about 13,000 steps a day and girls of the same age at about 11,000. Adolescents aged 12 to 17 fall in a 10,000 to 11,700 step range, and preschoolers around 11,500. Children naturally accumulate more steps than adults because their stride is shorter.
It is on the low side for most primary-school children. The 10,000-step figure came from adult pedometer marketing in Japan and has no paediatric basis; children aged 6 to 11 typically need 11,000 to 13,000 steps to reach the same activity level, so a 10,000-step goal can quietly under-set the target.
For ages 5 to 17, an average of at least 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity across the week, with vigorous activity and muscle- and bone-strengthening play on at least three days a week. Children aged 3 to 4 should get at least 180 minutes of activity at any intensity daily, of which at least 60 minutes is moderate-to-vigorous.
No, they overlap. Sixty minutes of moderate walking at a child's moderate-intensity cadence of about 120 steps a minute is roughly 7,200 steps, which is a large part of the daily step target rather than something on top of it. Treat whichever number your child's device measures reliably as the working goal.