Research and intervention efforts on physical activity and health have focused mainly at the individual level in the past. The impact of intervention at this level, however, has been found limited. Considerable interest and efforts have been made recently to determine the effect of environmental changes on physical activity participation and patterns. For example, research studies have started to look at the impact of urban-built environment, neighborhood, transportation and other related factors at the community level on physical activity participation of the population. Advanced technologies, such as satellites and global positioning systems, have been used for the data collection in this kind of research. However, how to analyze and model the data collected at this level and integrate them with the data collected at the individual level have not been explored. Also, little is known about how to design physical activity intervention at the community level using available information. The purpose of this presentation is to provide an updated review of the research activities and progress in community physical activity research and discuss the major current research issues in this area. In addition, measurement and analytical challenges in design and analyze research studies at community levels will be presented and explored.