flightsClimbed: HealthKit quantity type
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierFlightsClimbed · read from Apple’s documentation on 2026-10-02
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.flightsClimbed (Objective-C HKQuantityTypeIdentifierFlightsClimbed) is a HealthKit quantity type in Apple's "Activity" group. Apple's abstract: “A quantity sample type that measures the number flights of stairs that the user has climbed.” Apple's discussion says its samples use count units and measure cumulative values, so in HKStatisticsQuery it takes .cumulativeSum. It is available from iOS 8.0 and watchOS 2.0.
What Apple says flightsClimbed is
A quantity sample type that measures the number flights of stairs that the user has climbed.
Apple’s abstract, quoted from its flightsClimbed reference page, read 2026-10-02. Apple’s discussion of the type runs 34 words.
- Swift
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.flightsClimbed- Objective-C
HKQuantityTypeIdentifierFlightsClimbed- Family
HKQuantityTypeIdentifier- Apple's topic group
- Activity
- Group page
- Activity
- Apple's reference
- flightsClimbed on developer.apple.com
Availability
The versions Apple’s documentation data gives for flightsClimbed, platform by platform, as read on 2026-10-02.
| Platform | Introduced | Deprecated |
|---|---|---|
| iOS | 8.0 | — |
| iPadOS | 8.0 | — |
| Mac Catalyst | 13.0 | — |
| macOS | 13.0 | — |
| visionOS | 1.0 | — |
| watchOS | 2.0 | — |
The rest of that release: HealthKit Types Introduced in iOS 8.
Sum or average, and in which units
Apple states both of these in the prose of the type’s discussion, not as properties, so they are derived from Apple’s sentence and the sentence is shown with each.
Aggregation style
cumulative — in an HKStatisticsQuery, use .cumulativeSum. Apple’s sentence:
These samples use count units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in ).
Unit family
count — every type in this family is on the HKUnit reference.
Apple states it in the same sentence as the aggregation style, quoted above.
Empty parentheses and a dangling “described in” mark links in Apple’s sentence to other documentation pages: the generator keeps the sentence’s text, not its links, and the quote is left as stored rather than repaired.
Can apps write flightsClimbed?
Apple’s documentation for flightsClimbed does not state that its samples are read-only. Apple states read-only status only in prose, and its silence is not a statement either way, so this page makes no claim that apps can save it.
On Android Health Connect
No verified Health Connect counterpart. The cross-platform matrix pairs only metrics checked against both Apple’s and Google’s documentation, and flightsClimbed is not among them. A similarly named Health Connect record may exist, but a name match is not a verified mapping.
Questions
- Should I sum or average flightsClimbed in HealthKit?
- Sum it. Apple's documentation for flightsClimbed describes it as measuring cumulative values, so an HKStatisticsQuery over it takes .cumulativeSum. Apple's sentence, as read on 2026-10-02: "These samples use count units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in )."
- Which unit family does Apple give flightsClimbed?
- Count. Apple's discussion of flightsClimbed says its samples use count units: "These samples use count units (described in ) and measure cumulative values (described in )."
- Which iOS version added flightsClimbed?
- iOS 8.0. Apple's availability data for flightsClimbed lists iOS 8.0, iPadOS 8.0, Mac Catalyst 13.0, macOS 13.0, visionOS 1.0 and watchOS 2.0.
Sources checked
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier.flightsClimbed · read 2026-10-02
- Apple — HKQuantityTypeIdentifier · read 2026-10-02
Apple’s abstract and sentences are quoted for identification; the page layout, the capsule and the cross-platform pairing are AIFitnessAPI’s. Generated from Apple’s documentation by scripts/fetch-healthkit-identifiers.mjs, not typed by hand — the same data as the full identifier table.