Walking Around the Earth

This is the most-asked impossible-distance question, and it has a clean answer, because unlike the Great Wall the Earth's circumference is not a matter of definition.

The distance

The equatorial circumference is 40,075 kilometres, or 24,901 miles. The meridional circumference, measured pole to pole, is slightly shorter at 40,008 kilometres, because the Earth bulges at the equator from its rotation — the equatorial diameter exceeds the polar diameter by about 43 kilometres.

The step count

At an average adult walking stride of 0.75 metres, the equatorial circumference works out to about 53.4 million steps.

That figure varies more than people expect with height, which is a useful illustration of why the step is a poor unit of distance:

Height	Stride	Steps around the Earth
1.55 m	0.64 m	62.4 million
1.65 m	0.68 m	58.7 million
1.75 m	0.73 m	55.3 million
1.85 m	0.77 m	52.0 million
1.95 m	0.81 m	49.6 million

The spread between the shortest and tallest rows is nearly 13 million steps for exactly the same journey. Two people walking side by side around the world would end with step counts differing by roughly a quarter.

How long it would take

At 10,000 steps a day, every day without exception, 53.4 million steps would take about 14.6 years. At 20,000 a day it is 7.3 years; at 30,000, roughly 4.9 years.

Those are walking figures only, and they assume a continuous land route, which does not exist. About 71 per cent of the Earth's surface is water, and the equator in particular crosses the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific — roughly 80 per cent of the equatorial line is over open sea.

What people actually do instead

Because a literal circumnavigation on foot is impossible, the recognised attempts follow a different definition: walk a distance equal to the Earth's circumference across the largest available land routes, crossing oceans by ship or aircraft, and pass through a set of antipodal points.

George Matthew Schilling is sometimes credited with a walk around the world between 1897 and 1904, though the claim is not well documented. The first verified circumnavigation on foot is generally attributed to Dave Kunst, who walked from Minnesota in June 1970 and returned in October 1974, covering roughly 23,250 kilometres across four continents. His brother John, who set out with him, was killed by bandits in Afghanistan during the crossing.

Jean Béliveau of Quebec walked roughly 75,000 kilometres over eleven years from 2000 to 2011, taking a far longer route through 64 countries. Karl Bushby has been attempting a continuous unbroken walk from the southern tip of South America since 1998, subject to repeated interruptions from visa and border problems — a reminder that the practical obstacle to walking around the world is not distance or terrain but paperwork.

Some other scales

• An average person walking about 5,000 steps a day will cover the Earth's circumference in roughly 29 years — well within a normal adult lifetime.
• Someone who reaches 75 having averaged 7,500 steps a day will have walked roughly 205 million steps, or about four times around the world.
• The Earth's circumference at the equator is close to 1.85 billion of your feet placed heel to toe.

That first point is the one worth keeping. Walking around the world is not, in distance terms, an extraordinary human achievement. Most people do it, in fragments, without ever intending to.

Your step count, by height

Step length varies with height by more than 25 per cent across the adult range, so the single figure at the top of this page will not be right for everyone. Here is the same distance for a range of heights, using the standard estimate of 0.414 × height.

Your height	Est. step length	Steps for this route
1.55 m	0.64 m	62,420,989
1.65 m	0.68 m	58,673,902
1.75 m	0.72 m	55,274,862
1.85 m	0.77 m	52,316,286
1.95 m	0.81 m	49,658,333

These are estimates. If you want a figure that matches your own gait, our guide to measuring your stride length takes about five minutes.

Common questions

How many steps to walk around the Earth?

About 53.4 million steps at the equator, based on a 0.75-metre average adult stride and a circumference of 40,075 kilometres.

How long would it take?

About 14.6 years at 10,000 steps a day, or 7.3 years at 20,000 — walking every single day, and ignoring the fact that most of the equator is ocean.

Has anyone walked around the world?

Not literally, since oceans intervene. Dave Kunst's 1970–1974 journey is generally recognised as the first verified circumnavigation on foot under the accepted rules, which allow sea crossings by ship.

Try your own route

Enter any two places into the step calculator to get a figure for a walk of your own, or browse all twenty routes and eight articles.