Objective  To describe the status of physical activity among Chinese occupational populations and to provide evidences for health promotion in the populations.

  Methods  The data were from China Nutrition and Health Survey, 2010 – 2012 and a total of 31 694 employees (18 299 males and 13 395 females) were involved in the study．The participants′ daily activities including occupation, traffic mode, leisure-time exercise, and housework were described.

  Results  The participants worked averagely 5.7 days per week, with 8.3 hours per day and about a half of the working hours (4.4) were involved in sitting position. There were 63.0% of the participants engaged in low-intensity work. For all the participants, the average daily commuting time was 1.0 hour, with 37.9% of the participants commuting mainly by walking/cycling. The proportion of the participants taking leisure-time exercise was 15.6% and that of being engaged in housework was 85.2%, with an average 1.1 hours of housework time per day. The urban participants reported a significantly less time of working per day but more time of working in sitting position and higher proportions of being engaged in low-intensity work, leisure-time exercise, and housework compared to the rural participants (all P < 0.05). The male participants reported more working hours, higher ratios of moderate-to-vigorous occupational physical activity and commuting by car but lower ratios of having leisure-time exercise and doing housework than the female participants, with significant differences (P < 0.05 for all). Among the participants, the lowest ratios of in sitting position while working and leisure-time exercise but the highest ratio of doing work of moderate-to-vigorous occupational physical activity were reported by those engaged in farming, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery work (all P < 0.05).

  Conclusion  There are significant differences in physical activity among Chinese occupation populations, suggesting that targeted health education and promotion programs should be conducted in various occupation populations.