How many steps is 3 km?
About 4,300 steps for an adult of average height, from about 3,700 at 195 cm to 4,800 at 150 cm. Walked briskly, 3 km takes half an hour, which makes it the everyday unit of the WHO's activity guideline.
The numbers
Steps in 3 km, by height
| 150 cm (4 ft 11 in) | about 4,800 steps |
| 155 cm (5 ft 1 in) | about 4,700 steps |
| 160 cm (5 ft 3 in) | about 4,500 steps |
| 165 cm (5 ft 5 in) | about 4,400 steps |
| 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) | about 4,300 steps |
| 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) | about 4,100 steps |
| 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) | about 4,000 steps |
| 185 cm (6 ft 1 in) | about 3,900 steps |
| 190 cm (6 ft 3 in) | about 3,800 steps |
| 195 cm (6 ft 5 in) | about 3,700 steps |
Step length is about 41% of height. Give or take 10% for how you walk.
Against a daily step count
| A 5,000-step day | 85% of it |
| A 7,000-step day | 61% of it |
| A 10,000-step day | 43% of it |
For an adult of average height, walking only this distance.
On a reTrek route
3.0 km is 1/20 of the way to Everest Base Camp. At that distance a day, the whole route takes about 19 days.
About the Everest Base Camp routeTry your own distance
Steps
about 4,300
3,800 to 4,700 depending on your stride, about 0.70 m a step at this height.
Distance
3.0 km · 1.9 miles
Time on foot
36 min
at 5 km/h, no stops
Calories
Depends on your weight more than anything else. Enter it to see an estimate.
That is 1/20 of the way to Everest Base Camp.
How many steps is 3 km?
About 4,300 for an adult 170 cm (5 ft 7 in) tall. A walking step is roughly 41% of your height, about 0.70 m at 170 cm, so three kilometres takes 4,300 of them. Someone 150 cm tall takes about 4,800, and someone 195 cm about 3,700. Three kilometres is 1.86 miles.
Three kilometres and half an hour
At a brisk 6 km/h, three kilometres takes exactly 30 minutes, and at a normal 5 km/h, 36. That half hour is the useful part. The WHO recommends adults do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, and brisk walking counts, so a brisk 3 km on five days of the week meets the minimum. In steps, that is about 4,300 a day on top of whatever the day already holds.
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. The walk you would have skipped becomes the one that gets you to the next milestone.
At 3 km (1.9 miles) a day, Lukla to Everest Base Camp takes about 19 days. Walk it with a friend and pool your steps, or race them there. Everest Base Camp is free. Get reTrek.
Other distances in steps
Sources: One-mile step count at walking and running speeds, Hoeger et al., ACSM's Health and Fitness Journal, 2008 · WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour, 2020