The 10,000-step goal is dying a slow, well-deserved death — and a new study offers something better in its place: a trade. Walk farther, or walk faster. Either one, the research suggests, can buy you years.
The study, published online September 8, 2026, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, tracked 64,743 adults in the United Kingdom with an average age of 62. Each wore a wrist activity tracker for a week so researchers could measure both daily step counts and walking pace. Over roughly eight years of follow-up, 1,697 participants died, including 502 from cardiovascular disease. The researchers then compared groups with different combinations of step volume and intensity against a reference group taking fewer than 5,000 daily steps at a slow pace of 45 steps per minute.
The results give busy people genuine options. Participants who took fewer than 5,000 steps per day but walked at a faster pace had a substantially lower risk of dying from cardiovascular or other causes — a risk similar to people who walked between 5,000 and 7,500 steps per day at a slower pace. In other words, intensity compensated for volume. Taking 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day was linked to the lowest death rates among all the step groups, with the most favorable association at a cadence of roughly 100 steps per minute. The authors described maintaining a brisk pace — at least 90 to 100 steps per minute — for 30 minutes a day as a promising target for longevity. For people with barriers such as limited time or limited ability, the researchers said flexible combinations of step counts and speed can work.
This is not the first crack in the 10,000-step orthodoxy. A landmark 2025 systematic review in The Lancet Public Health combined 57 studies involving more than 160,000 adults and found that health benefits were maximized at around 7,000 steps a day — linked to a 47 percent lower risk of dying early, a 25 percent lower risk of cardiovascular disease, a 14 percent lower risk of type 2 diabetes, a 38 percent lower risk of dementia, a 22 percent lower risk of depression, and a 28 percent lower risk of falls, compared with about 2,000 steps. Benefits began accruing well before 7,000 steps and plateaued after it. The 10,000 figure, researchers keep reminding us, was never a medical recommendation: it traces back to a 1960s Japanese pedometer marketing campaign — "Manpo-kei," literally the "10,000 steps meter."
The usual cautions apply. The new study is observational: it found associations between walking patterns and mortality, not proof that walking faster causes longer life. Pace was measured by averaging steps per minute across each person's 30 most active minutes of the day, which is a reasonable proxy for purposeful walking but not a prescription written in stone.
Still, the message is usefully simple and refreshingly undemanding. You do not need 10,000 steps, and you do not need an hour at the gym. If time is short, pick up the pace on the walk you already take. If speed is hard, accumulate more steps at a comfortable pace. Keep walking — and when you have the opportunity, walk a little like you mean it.
Sources & evidence
- A study of 64,743 UK adults (average age 62) who wore wrist activity trackers, followed for about eight years with 1,697 deaths recorded, was published online September 8, 2026 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. corroborated
- People taking fewer than 5,000 daily steps at a faster pace had substantially lower mortality risk, similar to those walking 5,000 to 7,500 steps at a slower pace; 7,500 to 10,000 steps per day was linked to the lowest death rates. corroborated
- Maintaining a brisk pace of at least 90 to 100 steps per minute for 30 minutes a day was described as a promising target for longevity. corroborated
- A 2025 systematic review in The Lancet Public Health of 57 studies with more than 160,000 adults found about 7,000 daily steps was where health benefits were maximized, linked to 47 percent lower risk of dying early among other outcomes. corroborated
- The 10,000-step target originated with a 1960s Japanese pedometer marketing campaign, not a clinical recommendation. corroborated
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