A little over a year and a half ago, I installed a step-tracking app on my phone. Walking has countless benefits — for both physical and mental health — so I set myself a decent daily goal of about 9,000 steps.
Since last July, the app tells me I’ve walked roughly 3,380 kilometers. On foot. Not bad, right? Especially when you consider that, according to global activity studies, the average in Romania is only about 4,682 steps a day.
I don’t always hit my 9,000-step goal, but on average I’m still above that mark. Some days really stand out: 16,000, 22,000, or even more when I squeeze in a mountain hike or a quick getaway. My all-time record since installing the app was in February 2025, while I was on vacation in Malaga, Spain. I took a day trip to Gibraltar, climbed all the way up the Rock, and the app logged 33,000 steps that day. Honestly, I didn’t even feel it.
There’s this stereotype that Americans hardly walk at all — they just sit in their cars all day eating fast food. But it turns out that’s not entirely true. As I mentioned earlier, the average Romanian takes around 4,682 steps per day, while Americans average slightly more — about 4,774 steps. That’s almost 100 steps more than us. But statistics are one thing, and personal experiences are another. Like that joke goes: if you, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and the Sultan of Brunei calculated your average net worth, technically you’d be a billionaire too. And we all know that’s not the case. Not yet, anyway.
With my birthday coming up, I’m thinking of getting myself a practical gift: a smartwatch. It’ll probably track my steps more accurately and give me extra health stats that could be useful. Time keeps moving, we’re getting older, and that’s exactly why staying active matters even more. Honestly, I’d like to move even more.
At the end of the day, I don’t know how many steps you take daily, but experts say that, just like staying hydrated or getting at least 30 minutes of exercise, aiming for 7,000 steps a day is a solid benchmark. Whether you’re hitting 3,000 or 30,000, the key is to just keep moving consistently. After all, there’s an old Romanian saying: “Walking keeps your legs beautiful.”