How long does it take to walk 5 miles?
About an hour and a half at a normal walking pace, an hour and 20 minutes at a brisk one, two hours at a stroll. Five miles is 8 km, a real walk with a destination. Here it is by pace, age, steps and calories.
The numbers
8.0 km · 5.0 miles, in steps
| A child, 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) | about 16,200 steps |
| 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) | about 12,100 steps |
| 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in), the average adult | about 11,400 steps |
| 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | about 10,800 steps |
| 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) | about 10,200 steps |
| A giraffe, 5.5 m (18 ft) | no idea, sorry |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
How long it takes to walk
| A stroll, 4 km/h | 2 h 1 min |
| A normal walk, 5 km/h | 1 h 37 min |
| A brisk walk, 6 km/h | 1 h 20 min |
Walking without stops, on level ground.
Calories, by body weight
| 55 kg (121 lb) | about 282 kcal (375 incl. resting) |
| 70 kg (154 lb) | about 359 kcal (477 incl. resting) |
| 85 kg (187 lb) | about 436 kcal (580 incl. resting) |
| 100 kg (220 lb) | about 513 kcal (682 incl. resting) |
The walk's own cost at 5 km/h. The second number adds what you would have burned sitting still, which is what some fitness trackers show.
Steps by height: How many steps is 5 miles?
Try your own distance
Steps
about 11,400
10,300 to 12,600 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
8.0 km · 5.0 miles
Time on foot
1 h 37 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 1/8 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How long does it take to walk 5 miles?
About 97 minutes at a normal pace of 5 km/h (3.1 mph), 80 minutes at a brisk 6 km/h, two hours at a stroll of 4 km/h, without stops. Five miles is 8.05 km, and it is the length at which walking stops fitting into a day and becomes something the day is arranged around: a walk to somewhere, or a walk that replaces the bus both ways.
Does age change it?
Yes, but less than people expect. A meta-analysis of 41 studies and 23,111 healthy adults measured normal walking speed by decade: the fastest group, men in their forties, averaged 1.43 m/s, which is a mile in about 19 minutes, and the slowest, women over eighty, averaged 0.94 m/s, about 28 minutes a mile. Everyone in between is within that band, and the decline is gradual through the sixties and seventies. A healthy walker of any age covers a mile in 18 to 28 minutes.
How many steps is 5 miles?
About 11,400 for an adult of average height, from about 10,200 at 1.9 m to 12,100 at 1.6 m. Five miles every day is comfortably in the “active” tier of the step research and more than most people walk in two.
How many calories does walking 5 miles burn?
About 360 kcal for a 70 kg (154 lb) adult at a normal pace, from roughly 280 kcal at 55 kg (121 lb) to 515 kcal at 100 kg (220 lb). Weight decides most of it, pace barely matters between 4 and 6 km/h on the flat, and that is the walk’s own cost above sitting still. Some fitness trackers add the resting share and come out about a third higher.
A reason to walk today
Most of us know we should walk more and still skip it, because “go for a walk” has no finish line. reTrek gives you one: pick a famous route, like the Camino de Santiago or the Inca Trail, and every walk moves you further along it, with a short film about the place waiting at each milestone. You stop looking for a spare moment to walk and start walking to reach the next milestone.
At 8 km (5.0 miles) a day, Lukla to Everest Base Camp takes about 7 days. Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there. Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.
Other distances
Sources: Normal walking speed, a descriptive meta-analysis, Bohannon and Williams Andrews, Physiotherapy, 2011 · Energy expenditure during level human walking, Ludlow and Weyand, Journal of Applied Physiology, 2016