How Many Flights of Stairs Equal a Mile?

Just over 52 flights of stairs are equivalent to one mile. However, stair climbing is twice as strenuous as walking on flat ground. Slowly ascending stairs burns two to three times as many calories as walking swiftly on a flat area in the same length of time.

A mile of walking contains around 2,000 steps. The normal staircase has 10 steps. The effort required to ascend a flight is equivalent to walking 38 steps on a flat surface, because ascending needs more work. A Harvard study found that males who climbed an average of eight flights of stairs per day had a lower death rate than those who walked an average of 1.3 miles per day.