Abstract: National surveys serve as a critical institutional foundation for observing the development of national fitness in China, evaluating policy implementation, and improving the public service system. Drawing on the 2007 Survey on Physical Exercise Participation among Urban and Rural Residents, the National Fitness Activity Surveys (2014, 2020, 2025), and supplementary materials from the 1997 and 2001 National Mass Sports Surveys, this study employs documentary analysis, diachronic comparison, and inductive analysis to systematically examine the institutional evolution, structural characteristics, governance logic shifts, and realization pathways of China’s national fitness surveys. The findings show that the evolution of the national fitness survey system is primarily manifested in a strategic progression in nomenclature from “mass sports” to “national fitness”, a gradual expansion of survey subjects from specific age groups to the full-age population, a substantive deepening of survey content from basic monitoring to comprehensive evaluation, and a scientific refinement of survey methods from expanded coverage to standardized quality control. The results reveal five structural characteristics of national fitness development: a transition in residents’ fitness behavior from scale expansion to routine participation and daily integration; a scientific enhancement of residents’ fitness capacity from mere participation to evidence-informed exercise; an organized development of the fitness service system from individual spontaneity to social support; a convenience-oriented improvement of public sports facilities from provision to spatial accessibility; and a qualitative upgrading of sports consumption from material goods to service-based experiences. Further analysis indicates five shifts in the governance logic of national fitness: a people-centered shift in governance values from organizational mobilization to public service; a substantive shift in governance focus from scale expansion to quality improvement; a refined shift in governance approaches from universal coverage to targeted provision; a diversified shift in governance actors from government-led governance to social collaboration; and an evidence-based shift in governance models from periodic surveys to routine monitoring. Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period, efforts should center on rights protection, literacy enhancement, targeted provision, collaborative governance, and survey feedback. This requires improving the basic public service system, integrating the scientific fitness service chain, optimizing public sports resource allocation, strengthening multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms, and advancing the routine implementation of national surveys—all of which will contribute to a more equitable, accessible, precisely adapted, high-quality, and efficient public service system for national fitness.