October 5, 2026, 4:02 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
How much do three- and four-year-old children actually move on a normal day? Until now, it was difficult to answer this question regarding their daily step count, as comparable data from different parts of the world were largely missing. An international study with more than 3,500 children now provides a broad data foundation for the first time. It shows how the step counts of preschool children can be categorized worldwide. And those who think 10,000 steps a day is a lot might be surprised at the distances young children actually cover.
This Is How Much Young Children Are on the Move
On average, the children studied took an astonishing 18,542 steps per day. This means half of the measured values were above this number, and the other half were below.
However, the researchers were not only interested in how many steps children typically take. They also examined how much three- and four-year-olds differ in their movement behavior. For the first time, data from many different countries now allow us to assess whether a child’s step count is low, average, or high compared to peers. The principle is similar to the well-known growth curves for height and weight.
Important: A daily value of around 18,500 steps is not a recommendation or a movement goal for preschool children. It merely describes the median of the group studied.
How the Study Was Conducted
The current study aimed to determine comparative values for three- and four-year-old children. Data from 3,570 children from 44 countries were evaluated between 2018 and 2025. The data come from the international SUNRISE project, a research collaboration with scientists worldwide studying the movement, sitting, and sleep behavior of preschool children. The current step analysis was led by a team around Spanish researchers Jesús del Pozo-Cruz and Rosa María Alfonso-Rosa. The results were published in the journal “The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.”1
For the analysis, children wore a motion sensor on their hips that recorded their steps in everyday life. The researchers also examined whether the values differed based on age, gender, living environment, body weight, world region, and economic conditions.
Since different numbers of children participated from each country, the data were statistically weighted for international comparative values. This ensured that each of the 44 countries contributed equally to the overall result.
What Influences Children’s Step Count
The number of steps the children took depended, among other things, on age and gender. Three-year-olds typically took around 17,500 steps per day, while four-year-olds took about 18,900. Boys in both age groups took more steps than girls.
However, the differences between individual children were enormous. Some moved significantly less, while others moved much more. Among three-year-olds, step counts ranged from about 1,100 steps per day at the lower end to more than 29,000 at the upper end. For four-year-olds, the range was from about 2,700 to nearly 29,000 steps.
The living environment also played a role. Children in rural areas typically took around 20,200 steps a day, while children in cities took about 18,400. Children from lower-income countries also took more steps than those from wealthier countries. However, no clear pattern emerged regarding body weight.
In addition to the pure step count, the researchers also recorded walking speed (the so-called cadence in steps per minute). A similar pattern emerged here: Boys and children from rural regions and lower-income countries were not only more active overall but also covered their distances with higher intensity at times.
However, the study cannot explain where these differences come from. Additionally, the children studied do not represent all children in their respective countries. Differences in living conditions, place of residence, or economic situation must therefore be considered.
Interpretation and Limitations of the Results
The new comparative values can help better categorize a child’s step count and compare different groups in the future. However, it is still unclear whether anything about an individual child’s health can be inferred from this. It would first need to be investigated whether particularly low or high step counts are actually related to future health.
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Strengths and Weaknesses of the Study
A strength of the study is the broad international data foundation with a largely uniform measurement method. However, the number of participants varied greatly by country, and the groups studied were not representative. The sample sizes ranged from extremely small samples in individual countries (such as 18 children in the U.S. or 20 in Thailand) to over 400 children in Ethiopia. Such small groups are not representative of an entire country and made statistical weighting necessary in the first place.
Additionally, just one day of measurement was sufficient for the evaluation. Step counts also do not capture every form of physical activity, such as swimming or cycling. Possible causes for differences between various living environments were also not investigated.
The study authors report no conflicts of interest. According to the study, the funders had no influence on the planning, data collection, and evaluation, nor on the interpretation of the results or the creation of the manuscript.
What Previous Studies on This Topic Show
A study from China suggests that step counts in young children could be related to their fitness. Researchers measured the daily steps of preschool children in Shanghai for a week and then tested endurance, strength, and speed.2 With every additional 1,000 steps per day, the likelihood of high fitness increased—by 43 percent for boys and 62 percent for girls. However, the study cannot determine whether more steps make children fitter or if fitter children simply walk more. Additionally, their step counts cannot be directly compared to those of the Lancet study due to different measurement methods.
Official recommendations for young children have so far not focused on steps but on minutes: According to the WHO, three- and four-year-olds should be active for at least 180 minutes daily, with one hour of moderate to high intensity. An analysis of 48 studies with more than 20,000 children concluded in 2023 that the majority of preschool children meet this recommendation—though girls less often than boys.3 The authors then called for large international surveys to complete the picture.