China has been dubbed the world's most active country – in terms of steps taken per day, at least. According to the BBC, US scientists from Stanford have amassed 'planetary-scale' data from people's smartphones to see how active humans around the world really are. In one of the largest studies on human movement ever conducted, anonymous data was collected from more than 700,000 people who used the Argus activity monitoring app which makes use of built-in accelerometers in smartphones.
Credit: Tim Althoff
China comes out on top with people averaging close to 6,200 steps per day, while Indonesia was bottom of the rankings with just 3,513 steps.
China averages at 6,189 steps daily
Now the real question is – where's everyone walking to? Especially when we have the metro, Mobikes and cheap Didi rides readily available in cities all over the country. According to China Daily, China may have come out on top in this survey due to the sheer size of Chinese cities and the number of people who incorporate a long walk into their daily routine due to living far from any public transport links. Since researchers have drawn connections between the city's walkability and activity level, people walked more in places where it was easier to walk. Makes sense, right?
Walkability at different times of the day
There are obviously issues with the study, mainly the small sample size. 700,000 people is a tiny fraction of China's population, never mind the world's. It can often feel like there are more than 700,000 people living in your apartment compound. Also, Hong Kong, which contributed to China's average in the study, actually came out on top as the place with the highest number of average steps with an impressive 6,880.
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