In 2021, with the easing of pandemic restrictions, Europeans emerged from their houses to walk – or so says WeWard, which has been producing and operating a walking app since 2019. The company’s study of data collected for 2020 and 2021 – as generated by some 4.5 million app users in France, Spain and Belgium – suggest an increase of 370 percent in walking. The distance walked in kilometers rose from 188.2 million to 891.8 million, and total steps from about 251 billion to about 1.189 trillion.
Men aged 45 to 54 were the biggest walkers in 2020, taking an average of 8,192 steps to travel about 5.73 km over an hour and a half per day. In 2021 they raised their walking time by 15 minutes, taking 8,732 steps over 6.20 km.
Women of the same age walked 6,555 steps over 4.59 km in 2020 and raised their totals in 2021 to 6,945 steps and 4.86 km.
WeWard’s management tells Diffusion Sport that “for the moment we see no significant impact” from the Omicron variant. It believes the increase in foot traffic is attributable largely to the reopening of bars, shops and cultural centers.
The WeWard app incentivizes users to walk by providing users with a social platform through which to challenge one another and with what it calls “Wards,” for conversion into cash, gifts or charitable donations.
