Pooling WHO STEP surveys (363,462 people, 76 countries) with the South Asia Biobank (203,524 people), resting heart rate (RHR) measured in triplicate averaged 65-80 bpm by country and ran higher in women. Obese men carried RHR 4.4 bpm above normal-weight men in the WHO data (3.1 in South Asia); obese women showed only about +1 bpm. Meeting activity guidelines was linked to RHR 1.6-2.1 bpm lower in men and 0.5-0.9 bpm lower in women. RHR was 0.6-0.9 bpm higher in June-August, and fell 0.4 bpm per year in men across 21 countries with repeat surveys. Self-reported activity explained just 2-14% of accelerometer-measured activity, with RHR adding 1-3%.
RHR is a cheap, familiar marker, and prior cohorts link higher resting rates to greater cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. This work is descriptive, though: it contains no mortality follow-up and cannot show that lowering RHR extends life. The gaps here are small. A 1-2 bpm difference tied to activity is meaningless for any individual, and the sex split (obesity moving men's RHR far more than women's) is the most interesting signal. The finding that RHR adds little to explaining measured activity suggests it is a poor stand-in for fitness testing. Cross-sectional design, self-reported activity and varying survey methods across countries limit interpretation. This is a preprint awaiting peer review, so numbers may shift. Editorially, it is confirmatory surveillance data rather than a practical advance for readers, who gain more from tracking their own RHR trend over time than from these population averages.