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US SCIENTISTS HAVE collected worldwide-scale data from smartphones to see how active each country is.
The Standford University research analyses 68 million days’ worth of minute-by-minute data of the average number of steps for 717,527 people.
The average number of steps worldwide per day was 4,961.
Hong Kong came top of the list with an average of 6,880 steps a day. Meanwhile, Indonesia was bottom of the rank with an average of just 3,513.
Country averages
The research doesn’t outline the exact average of steps taken in Ireland, however the colour coded map shows that steps taken here are on a similar level to the UK, which comes in at an average of 5,444 steps.
The only countries with exact figures were as follows:
Most smartphones have a built-in accelerometer that records steps. The researchers collected this anonymous data, from the Argus activity monitoring app, to establish the results.
City landscapes
The study, published in the Nature journal, gives an insight into how countries can improve people’s health.
Researchers found that “inequality” in how activity differs within countries is more important than that of obesity levels.
For example, it found that aspects of the built environment, such as the accessibility of walking in cities, has an impact on the results.
“In more walkable cities, activity is greater throughout the day and throughout the week, across age, gender, and body mass index (BMI),” the study wrote.
Our findings have implications for global public health policy and urban planning. [It] highlights the role of activity inequality and the built environment in improving physical activity and health.
It found that the bigger the activity inequality in countries, the higher the rates of obesity.
For example, the US and Mexico were both found to have similar average steps, but the US has higher activity inequality and obesity levels.
Gender gaps
Activity inequality differs greatly between men and women, according to the research.
In countries with high inequality, like the US, women were found to spend less time being active.
However, in Japan, with low inequality and obesity levels, men and women exercise in similar amounts.
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Or maybe… more developed countries take less steps because we have better infrastructure and more cars?
@M: Better infra for more cars would equal less steps, and fatter more obese and lazy people, becoming more like the USA all the time…
My smartphone always gives lower step readings than what I actually do as I don’t take my phone with me everywhere e.g. When mowing the lawn.
@M: Why is it that the comments have consistently more logic than the articles?
@M: or the phones are left in the Gym lockers every day ? Not a true picture as even most joggers leave the phone at home.
@M: Well, how does that explain the discrepancy between Spain (more developed with better infrastructure and more cars) and Indonesia (less developed with worse infrastructure and less cars)? In fact, looking at the map above, the evidence seems to point in the completely opposite direction to what you’re saying. Unless you think Libya, Venezuela, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Iraq and Myanmar are all more developed countries than, say, Spain, Japan, Sweden and the UK.
@M: we have a crap public transport system,what are you smoking?
@M: more developed? Hong Kong is number 1 as most people don’t have cars due to having one of the best public transport systems in the world. People clock up a lot of steps changing trains etc. Having more cars does not imply higher development.
The flaw in this study is the asymmetric profile of smartphone ownership especially in poor countries. For instance Indonesians who can afford to own a smartphone are wealthy older people who will be less active. In countries with a more democratic spread of technology such as Japan and Hong Kong you see higher activity levels. Young people own smartphones!
@Clancy: And the other flaw is that many people, especially women, don’t actually carry their phone around in their pocket all day. It’s in their bag, which, unless they are Moominmamma, or the Queen of England, they don’t carry around all day either.
According to my phone, I took 3,726 steps yesterday.
According to my FitBit (which only comes off at shower time), I took 11,587 steps yesterday.
Need I say more about how flawed this study is?
I was going to read it then I thought ” Can’t someone else do it?”
@John Brennan: there’s an app for that….
If they’re using anonymous smartphone pedometers the data is seriously flawed! My phone counts my steps too (happy to say I ‘average’ 8-9k steps on the phone counter). However, like most women, I don’t keep my phone in my pocket so the steps it’s counting are only my commuting steps. The rest of the day the phone sits in my bag, stationary but I’m still moving about for at least some of that time so the true figure is much higher. These averages seem suspiciously low to me.
that”s nuts, who is walking around our cities at the moment constantly even late into the night, refugees with nothing to do. my job does not involve walking, but don’t think it makes me lazy, more likely busy.
They don’t have accurate data, “given the same color as the UK!”.
@Adrian: the whole study is pop sh!te, what about swimmers, field sports, people who don’t take their phone jogging. Senseless drivel.
Dublin marathon just sold out again, must be a few of us doing alright.
Maybe we take less steps because Ireland is small and there is less space to take more steps. Just a thought.
Social Welfare is a plague and should be eradicated apart from old age pensions.
@Owen Martin: so true. Paying people no to work and be part of a community makes them sick.
@Owen Martin: That’s right Owen, those blind and disabled ones are especially lazy and should be left to fend for themselves. Maybe we could get them stuffing envelopes or making number plates, you know, there shouldn’t be any ‘free’ money.
@Jimmy Riddler: couldn’t agree more jimmy. There was an article on here a few weeks back about blind people being able to work.
@RealityHammer: If you have to pay people to be part of a community then its not a community, if you have to bribe someone to be part of a community then it means they hate the community by the amount you have to pay them.
@Jimmy Riddler: wow extraordinary, all those blind and disabled people take welfare of €20 billion per year !!!
To be honest this title “laziest counties” has nothing to do with the content. Very annoying click bait title. I kept reading trying to find more detail on how number of steps relates to laziness and there is nothing.
I couldnt be bothered reading this guff.
They could’ve just counted the number of posts here on a daily basis! My posts don’t count cause half the time they don’t make sense, the other quarter I’m inebriated, and the last eighth I work when I want so post when I want. People will say that’s not a total of 100%, correct, I’ll be damn sure not to make full use of my time, annoy those who say to not enough hours in the day!
@Brown Boots: i think all posters should be breathalysed !
Too lazy to read the article so came straight to the comments to get the gist of it.
Some – not all – might lazy maybe when it comes to doing anything about rotten elected politicians. Walking in protest – stuff that! They would rather stay at home and watch EastEnders or some other equivalent, brain-dead rubbish – while continuing to allow themselves to be further financially screwed, by the usual political Mafia!
@Clear And Graphic: tools to distract the masses from asking questions. The amount of non working time and energy given to watching sports is unbelievable. But if it keeps the masses from initiating a coup when their oil and gas is given away or the bank Ponzi loots their pension reserve fund then keep the distractions going.
Seems we’re too lazy to get to either end of the scale also.
Sure the local post office is never that far away when collecting the “wages” is it. Screw asking why work when the government will pay me….why move when the government will pay me?
Ridiculous study. Were probably tracking something else but passed it off as this BS
I jog 12km every day of the week. Still too much emphasis on cars in Ireland. I think we will get pretty fat in the near future as things stand.
Such a stupid article ! So generalised and using the word ” lazy” takes no account of hard working people without smartphones or the need to be mobile while working. It takes no account of gender. In some countries women work so hard and men do SFA !! In Thailand for example, there is a convenience store every 100 metres because the Thai people do not like to walk in the heat ! However, the women work so hard , long hours, low wages. The men do as little as possible ! The study is a nonsense !
What a stupid way to collect data for a study.
What % of Indonesians go to the gym or pool or take part in sports?
This is more like a study that 2nd class would do.
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