How many steps is 5 km?
About 7,100 steps for an adult of average height, from about 6,200 at 195 cm to 8,100 at 150 cm. A 5k walked is not 10,000 steps for anyone, but it is a full day's worth of what the research asks for.
The numbers
Steps in 5 km, by height
| 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) | about 8,100 steps |
| 155 cm (5 ft 1 in) | about 7,800 steps |
| 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) | about 7,500 steps |
| 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) | about 7,300 steps |
| 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | about 7,100 steps |
| 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) | about 6,900 steps |
| 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | about 6,700 steps |
| 185 cm (6 ft 1 in) | about 6,500 steps |
| 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) | about 6,400 steps |
| 195 cm (6 ft 5 in) | about 6,200 steps |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
Against a daily step count
| A 5,000-step day | 142% of it |
| A 7,000-step day | 101% of it |
| A 10,000-step day | 71% of it |
For an adult of average height, walking only this distance.
On a reTrek route
5.0 km is 1/12 of the way to Everest Base Camp. At that distance a day, the whole route takes about 12 days.
About the Everest Base Camp routeTime and calories: How many miles is a 5k?
Try your own distance
Steps
about 7,100
6,400 to 7,800 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
5.0 km · 3.1 miles
Time on foot
1 h
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 1/12 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How many steps is 5 km?
About 7,100 for an adult 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall. A walking step is roughly 41% of your height, about 0.70 m at 170 cm, so five kilometres takes 7,100 of them. Someone 150 cm tall takes about 8,100, and someone 195 cm about 6,200. Five kilometres is 3.11 miles, the distance of every 5k and every parkrun.
Is a 5k 10,000 steps?
No, not walked, and not for anyone on the table. 10,000 steps is about 7 km for an adult of average height, and even someone 150 cm tall reaches only about 8,100 in 5 km. Running it takes fewer steps still, because a running stride is longer than a walking one. A 5k is a big part of a 10,000-step day, not the whole of it.
Is walking 5 km a day enough?
For most people, yes. The 2025 review of daily steps in The Lancet Public Health found most outcomes levelling off between 5,000 and 7,000 steps a day, and 5 km is about 7,100 steps on its own. A daily 5 km walk clears that range before the rest of the day is counted. More still helps, by a smaller margin. How many steps a day is good has the whole picture.
Five kilometres a day, counted toward somewhere
In reTrek those 7,100 steps become distance on a real trail. Pick a route, Everest Base Camp is free, and 5 km a day carries you from Lukla to Base Camp in about 12 days, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. reTrek reads the steps your phone already counts, so the walk itself does not change. What changes is that it is going somewhere.
Or take someone with you: walk the same route with a friend and pool your steps, or race each other to Base Camp.
Other distances in steps
Sources: One-mile step count at walking and running speeds, Hoeger et al., ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal, 2008 · Daily steps and health outcomes in adults, a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, Lancet Public Health, 2025