Getting their steps in: Preschoolers walk 18,000 steps a day

A study published in the journal *The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health* has established global reference values for daily step counts in preschool-aged children, aged 3 and 4. Researchers found that the median daily step count for this age group is 18,542 steps, though there is significant variation among children, with some taking as few as 1,124 steps per day and others reaching 29,320 steps.

The study analyzed data from more than 3,500 children aged 3 and 4 from 44 countries, collected between 2018 and 2025. Participants wore a step counter on their hips for 24 hours a day over a minimum of three days. The findings indicate that boys generally take more steps than girls; for instance, among 3-year-olds, the median was 18,064 steps for boys compared with 16,426 steps for girls. Similarly, among 4-year-olds, the median daily steps were 19,477 for boys and 18,321 for girls.

In addition to gender differences, the researchers noted that children in low- and middle-income countries, as well as those living in rural areas, tended to record higher average daily steps than their counterparts in high-income countries and urban settings. The study's authors suggest that these global reference values could be used similarly to pediatric growth charts, providing a way to compare an individual child's physical activity against an international benchmark.

However, the researchers caution that the study is observational and only captures one short window in time, so it cannot explain the reasons behind the observed differences. Furthermore, the country-level samples were relatively small, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to entire national populations. Despite these limitations, the study's findings could support efforts to establish activity benchmarks for young children, but further research is needed to understand the causal factors and ensure the findings apply broadly.