(Figure of the Research)

A new study by Nature on physical activity found that Chinese rank at the top in terms of number of daily steps.

The research was carried out by Stanford University and is based on a dataset collected from 717,527 individuals across 111 countries. The worldwide average is 4,961 steps in day. Hong Kong ranks first, with an average of 6,880 steps, followed by the mainland, with 6,189 steps.

The report noted that “activity inequality” is a better predictor of obesity prevalence in the population than average activity volume. "If you think about some people in a country as 'activity rich' and others as 'activity poor,' the size of the gap between them is a strong indicator of obesity levels in that society,” Scott Delp, who co-led the research, told The Stanford News.

China has the lowest activity inequality index in the world at 24.5 in the mainland and at 22.2 in Hong Kong, while the U.S. ranks among the bottom five at 30.3. It explains that the equality of physical activity volume in China across ages and genders.

The report also found that the “walkability” of an environment played a factor in activity inequality. People tend to walk more in more walkable cities.

Chinese tech companies, such as Tencent, have launched mobile apps to help people track their daily steps, and there are lots of wearable devices available with similar functions which are popular among sports enthusiasts. Many take more than 20,000 steps a day, and some even reach 100,000 steps a day.