The relationship between personality traits, habitual physical activity and musculoskeletal pain among employees of a psychiatric maximum security hospital and of a state penitentiary were analyzed using data from a compound self‐report questionnaire. The questionnaire comprised items from the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Epa), the Örebro questionnaire for musculoskeletal pain (ÖQ) and items concerning physical activity. A total of 122 (85%) employees filled in the questionnaire. There were no differences in physical activity, body mass index (BMI) or pain between the psychiatric hospital and prison employees. There was no association between physical activity and musculoskeletal pain. At the aggregate level, physical activity was positively associated with indices of extraversion and negatively with indices of anxiety. A discriminant analysis suggested that subjects with low back pain had an increased frequency of sick leave, more cervical as well as hip pa a higher BMI and higher scores in indices of social conform