Chronic pain has been considered as one of the leading causes of decreased quality of life and disability in adults. Recent evidence suggested that physical activity level, weight status, age, and other demographic characteristics could play a role in determining whether an individual will experience pain during usual activities. Additionally, greater pain prevalence has been observed among obese and female populations; however, few studies have been conducted in these populations and the current results are conflicting. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among physical activity, weight status, body composition, and pain impacting a person’s ability to perform usual activities using a nationally representative sample (NHANES 2011-2012). Additionally, it explored the effects of demographic variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, education, and the presence of an arthritis diagnosis, all of which have been previously shown to impact physical activity, weight status, or body composition, on the relationship among our variable of interest. METHODS: Data from the 2011-2012 NHANES report was used in this study. NHANES consists of a series of interviews and interviews that assess demographic, socioeconomic, health, medical and dietary variables as well as physical exam and laboratory data. From this survey variables were selected that provided demographic, pain, self reported physical activity, BMI, and body composition data. RESULTS: There were significant differences in body composition and physical activity levels among males and females (P < 0.05). Males had a greater prevalence of being more active compared to females as well as having more lean mass, less fat mass, and lower % body fat. Significant differences in the prevalence of chronic pain (P < 0.05) were found for the following variables: age, race/ethnicity, education level, annual household income, BMI, total physical activity, recreational physical activity, and arthritis diagnosis. When controlling for all other variables, significant results were also found for the odds of moving up in a pain category (P < 0.05) within the following variables: age, race/ethnicity, annual household income, total physical activity and arthritis diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, we found that not meeting the weekly physical activity guidelines will significantly increase one’s chance of reporting a greater prevalence of pain making it difficult to perform usual activities when not controlling for fat mass.