GNS Gross National Steps

The Australian economy grew 0.5% in the December quarter 2022, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rose 0.5% this quarter and 2.7% through the year. Although this is the fifth consecutive increase, growth slowed in each of the last two quarters.

Starting with a sentence like that is not the best way to grab your attention so let’s translate that onto a different topic. We know that GDP is a measure of a country’s income during a period, and it is used to determine how well off we are, although in a sense it is really just a measure of activity. What if we apply the same thinking to health?

Let’s create a measure for how healthy we are, based on the number of steps walked each month.

Gross National Steps (GNS) is a count of the total number of steps walked each month in Australia, estimated based on extensive data collection. GNS excludes steps walked by Australians who have travelled overseas, but includes the steps walked by tourists who visit Australia. A conversion into steps is made of metres swum or cycled to capture all like activity; debate continues on the utility of gym activity and remains excluded for now.

GNS, although only measuring activity, is a proxy for how healthy we are, just as GDP, also measuring activity in the form of expenditure or income, is commonly used as a proxy for how wealthy we are. For Australians to become healthier GNS needs to increase from one month to the next; an increase in GNS is therefore a good outcome.

GNS can be used to compare our health with how healthy people are in other countries, and to compare the success of our policies in improving health compared to the policies of other countries.

Being healthy, and aiming to be healthier, is inarguably a good thing, so having policies that target increases in GNS are uncontestable. We could have education campaigns to improve the ability of people to walk; PR campaigns to encourage people to walk; we could reward high steppers. Stride length is irrelevant, all that matters is how many steps.

Claims will be made that increasing GNS results in damage to the environment, with everyone trampling down grass and other foliage. Complaints will be made that the health dividend from walking is unevenly distributed, with many people walking and still unwell – and what about those unable to walk?

Political parties will vie to be known as the most capable at increasing GNS, proposing subsidies for walking shoes, providing financial support for walking clubs, building infrastructure for people to walk on.

There is another way to increase GNS – just increase the number of people in the country each month.