Where the numbers come from
Althoff and colleagues (Nature, 2017) used minute-by-minute step data recorded by the phones of 717,527 people in 111 countries, about 68 million days in all. They focused on the 46 countries with at least 1,000 users each.
Keep two limits in mind. These are smartphone owners who chose to use an activity app, not a random sample of each country. And phones are often left on a desk or in a bag, so the totals understate the steps people really take. The figures are best for comparing countries with each other, not for judging your own day.
Average daily steps by country
The table shows a selection of the 46 countries, ordered from most to fewest steps, with the gap to the worldwide average.
| Country or region | Average steps a day | Difference from average |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong | 6,880 | +1,919 |
| China | 6,189 | +1,228 |
| Ukraine | 6,107 | +1,146 |
| United Kingdom | 5,444 | +483 |
| All users worldwide (average) | 4,961 | Average |
| United States | 4,774 | -187 |
| Egypt | 4,315 | -646 |
| India | 4,297 | -664 |
| Brazil | 4,289 | -672 |
| South Africa | 4,105 | -856 |
| Philippines | 4,008 | -953 |
| Malaysia | 3,963 | -998 |
| Saudi Arabia | 3,807 | -1,154 |
| Indonesia | 3,513 | -1,448 |
India in focus
Indian users averaged 4,297 steps a day, about 664 below the worldwide figure and 39th of the 46 countries. Brazil and Egypt were close by.
A brisk 20-minute walk at 100 steps a minute adds about 2,000 steps, which would lift that average to about 6,297. In hot months or the monsoon, early-morning or evening walks and walking indoors are practical ways to keep the habit.
Inequality matters more than the average
The study's main finding was not the ranking. Within each country the researchers measured activity inequality: how unevenly steps were shared between the most and least active people. Countries with higher inequality had more obesity, and inequality predicted obesity better than average steps did. People in the five most unequal countries were 196% more likely to be obese than those in the five most equal.
Women's lower activity explained much of the inequality. Cities that were easier to walk around had more equal activity: across 69 US cities, a higher walkability score went with more steps in every age, sex and weight group, with a bigger boost for women.
How your steps compare
Comparing yourself with a country average is less useful than comparing with health research. Large pooled studies found the drop in risk of early death levelled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps a day for adults over 60 and about 8,000 to 10,000 for younger adults, and a 2025 analysis found most of the benefit by about 7,000.
Because the country figures undercount, someone recording 5,000 steps on a phone they carry all day is not necessarily more or less active than the national average. Track your own trend over weeks, and aim to move it up.