How Many Steps Should I Walk A Day To Lower Dementia Risk?

You’ve probably heard that 10,000 steps a day is best for your health. Not only was this figure a marketing tool at first, however, but some research has found that the true sweet spot is around 7,000 steps daily.

That distance has been linked to a lower likelihood of all-cause mortality, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even dementia.

Other studies have found different, and generally positive, results for other step counts, too.

Alzheimer’s Society has said that people who remain physically active throughout their lives may be 20% less likely to develop dementia overall. A lack of exercise, they wrote, is “one of the main factors where the evidence is strong enough to show that it increases a person’s risk of developing dementia”.

That comes from a swell of studies that showed a link between moving more and experiencing less dementia (these only showed a link and not a cause, however).

Here are the dementia risk changes associated with different step counts:

In a 2022 JAMA Neurology paper, researchers found that walking 3,800 steps a day was linked to 50% of the best dementia-risk-dowering result.

That meant that even though it wasn’t the optimal distance, the figure – which translates to about 2.85km – was still associated with a 25% lower likelihood of going on to develop the condition.

Another 2025 paper split almost 300 participants into two groups: one with higher levels of amyloid-beta plaques in their brain, and another without. The people involved were aged between 50 and 90, and were followed for nin years.

Amyloid plaques are sticky bundles of abnormal protein fragments, while tau tangles are made up of stringy proteins. Combined, this pair has been compared to the “trigger and bullet” in dementia formation; therefore, those in the higher amyloid group were expected to see higher dementia rates, faster.

After tracking participants’ daily step counts and comparing them to dementia incidence rates, the results suggested that the slowing of cognitive decline among those already more likely to develop dementia “plateaued” at a “moderate” level of activity (5,000-7,500 steps a day).

And the 7,000 steps study we mentioned earlier also found that among all of its healthy participants, the distance was linked to a 38% lower risk of dementia.

Still, to some extent, more does seem to be better. The JAMA Neurology research found that “accumulating more steps per day just under the popular threshold of 10,000 steps per day… may be associated with lower risk of dementia onset.”

Walking 9,800 steps daily was linked to a roughly 50% lower risk of dementia in this study.

It’s not just how far you walk – the speed of your stroll might matter too.

The JAMA paper said “performing steps at higher intensity may be associated with lower risk of dementia”; the Alzheimer’s Society named “brisk” walks in their list of suitable exercises.

2016 research found that “slow or decreased walking pace is significantly associated with elevated risk of cognitive decline and dementia in elderly populations”.

Brisk walking has also been linked to a 20% reduction in premature death compared to 4% for slower walkers.

Speaking to the Science Media Centre about the 2025 paper we discussed above, Professor Andrew Doig, a Professor in Biochemistry at the University of Manchester, said: “While the exact mechanism that links exercise to dementia is uncertain, this work convincingly shows that a straightforward way to slow down the progression of [Alzheimer’s] is to take exercise.

“This does not have to be onerous. Even something as simple as taking a short walk every day shows real benefits. What’s good for the heart is also good for the head.”