Children aged three and four walk an average of roughly 18,000 steps per day worldwide, according to an international study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. The research, part of the Sunrise project coordinated by the University of Wollongong in Australia, tracked more than 3,500 preschoolers across 44 countries using hip-worn motion sensors.
The weighted median was 18,542 steps per day, meaning half the children recorded more and half fewer. Three-year-olds averaged about 17,500 steps, while four-year-olds reached nearly 19,000. But the range was striking: from about 1,100 steps at the low end to nearly 29,800 at the high end. The gap between a sedentary child and a highly active one can exceed 25,000 steps in a single day.
Data were collected between 2018 and 2025, with children wearing the sensors for at least three days. The more than 30 authors of the Sunrise study stress that physical activity in early childhood is essential for growth and healthy development, but they explicitly refrain from recommending a specific step target for preschoolers, noting that many factors shape movement behavior. They call for future research to examine how sitting time and sleep patterns relate to step counts.
The World Health Organization recommends at least 180 minutes of physical activity per day for three- and four-year-olds, including at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity. No WHO step guideline exists for this age group, nor for adults; previous research has suggested 7,000 to 10,000 daily steps for adults aged 18 to 64, based on activity recommendations.
The study found sharp differences by national income. Children in low-income countries averaged about 23,000 steps daily, more than 5,000 steps above children in high-income countries. Participating low-income countries include India and Kenya. In Europe, the project includes Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Poland, but not Germany. Children in rural areas also walked nearly 2,000 steps more per day than those in cities.
Gender gaps emerged as well. Three-year-old boys took about 1,640 more steps daily than girls of the same age, while four-year-old boys took roughly 1,150 more. The authors suggest possible explanations include differences in play behavior and leisure activities, as well as sociocultural influences that appear at an early age.
The researchers propose that strategies to promote physical activity in early childhood should pay particular attention to girls and to children with higher body weight, who also tend to take fewer steps. The findings add to a growing body of evidence that movement patterns are established early and vary widely across the globe.
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