How do you measure your step length?

Walk 20 steps at your usual pace on a flat path, measure the distance you covered and divide it by 20. If 20 steps take you 50 feet, your step is 30 inches, or 76 cm.

What is the average step length for my height?

A common estimate is 0.413 times your height: about 70 cm (27.6 inches) at 170 cm, 62 cm at 150 cm and 78 cm at 190 cm. A step you measure yourself can differ, because step length also changes with pace.

Why is Walking Step Length empty in Health?

According to Apple, iPhone records it only while you walk steadily on flat ground with the phone near your waist, and not while you run or hike uphill. It records less often with the phone in your hand, a backpack or a purse, and it needs your height in Health to be up to date.

Is step length the same as stride length?

No. A stride is two steps. Most pedometers that ask for your stride length want the length of one step: their own instructions tell you to walk ten steps and divide by ten.

how to measure your step length

Q: What is Walking Step Length on iPhone?

It is a Mobility measurement in the Health app: the distance between your front foot and back foot as you walk. iPhone records it on its own when you carry it near your waist, such as in a pocket, and walk steadily on flat ground.

Q: Why do step length calculators disagree?

Their height rules describe different paces. In Apple's validation study, the average step at a mean height of 1.66 m was 0.61 m walking slowly, 0.68 m at a comfortable pace and 0.71 m walking fast.

Walk 20 steps at your usual pace, measure how far you went, and divide by 20. That is your step length. The estimate from height used across this site gives 27.6 inches (70 cm) for someone 170 cm tall, but the step you measure is the one that is yours. The calculator below does the division and puts your step next to that estimate.

Work out your step

Steps you counted

Distance you covered

Your height, to compare

170 cm · 5′7″

27.6 in · 70 cm

2,296 steps a mile · 1,426 steps a km

your step 0.41 × your height

estimate from height 27.6 in · 70 cm

Step length from 20 steps

Pace out 20 steps, then measure from where you started to where you stopped. Pedometer makers ask for the same thing: Omron and Tanita tell you to walk 10 steps and divide by 10, Fitbit asks for at least 20. Whether you measure toe to toe or heel to heel does not matter here, because you measure the whole distance rather than a single step.

Step length from 20 steps over a measured distance
20 steps cover	step length	steps in a mile
40 ft	24.0 in · 61 cm	2,640
45 ft	27.0 in · 69 cm	2,347
50 ft	30.0 in · 76 cm	2,112
55 ft	33.0 in · 84 cm	1,920

What Walking Step Length on iPhone is

Since iOS 14, the Health app on iPhone 8 or later has a Mobility measurement called Walking Step Length: the distance between your front foot and back foot as you walk. iPhone records it on its own when you carry it near your waist, such as in a pocket, and walk steadily on flat ground, usually 10 to 30 times on a typical day. It needs your height in Health to be up to date.

If the chart is empty, that is usually why. According to Apple, iPhone does not record step length while you run or hike uphill, and it records less often with the phone in your hand, a backpack or a purse. Apple tested the measurement against a pressure-sensing walkway with 538 adults aged 64 to 92, where the standard deviation of its absolute errors was 5 cm; it has not published figures for younger adults.

Angel Step reads only your step count from Apple Health, not your step length.

Why step length calculators disagree

Most calculators turn height into a step with one multiplier, and the multipliers in use run from 0.37 to 0.45: at 170 cm, that is 63 cm to 77 cm. They contradict each other less than it looks, because they describe different paces. In Apple's validation study, the average step at a mean height of 1.66 m was 0.61 m walking slowly, 0.68 m at a comfortable pace and 0.71 m walking fast — about 0.37, 0.41 and 0.43 of height.

This site's calculators use 0.413 × height, which sits at a comfortable pace: 62 cm at 150 cm, 70 cm at 170 cm, 78 cm at 190 cm. We could not trace that ratio to a study; the calculators that quote it cite none.

What is an average step length?

The large published norms are for older adults. In the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, 294 people aged 70 and over walked a sensor walkway: average step length was 69 cm for men aged 70 to 74 and 61 cm for women of that age, and shorter in each older group. In a Japanese study of 1,212 adults aged 70 to 96, it was 60.8 cm for men and 57.7 cm for women, at average heights of 163.4 cm and 150.1 cm. We did not find comparable norms for younger adults.

Step or stride?

A stride is two steps, from one heel to the same heel again. Most pedometers that ask for your stride length want one step, which is why their own instructions say to walk ten steps and divide by ten. What the difference does to a mile is on steps in a mile by height.

These are measurements you take and estimates for planning, not medical advice.

Sources

Apple — HealthKit documentation for Walking Step Length: what it measures, when iPhone records it, and how often. Apple Developer
Apple (May 2022) — Measuring Walking Quality Through iPhone Mobility Metrics: validation against a pressure-sensing walkway in adults aged 64 to 92. Apple
Hollman, McDade and Petersen (2011) — normative gait parameters in 294 adults aged 70 and over, Mayo Clinic Study of Aging. PMC
Gait reference values in 1,212 community-dwelling Japanese adults aged 70 to 96 (2019). PMC
Omron — HJ-321 pedometer instruction manual: measure ten steps and divide by ten. Omron Healthcare
Fitbit, Google Health Help — how a Fitbit device calculates distance, and measuring at least 20 steps. Google

Updated 30 September 2026