Objective  To analyze highlights and tendencies in international researches on public health system (PHS) during 2000 – 2019 and to provide references for researches on China′s public health system.

  Methods  We searched Web of Science for studies on PHS published in English from January 2000 through September 2019 and performed visual analysis on the information extracted from the retrieved literatures with CiteSpace 4.0.R5.64-bit.

  Results  Totally 8 127 relevant literatures were screened out and an increasing tendency in international researches on PHS was observed; the research highlights of the retrieved studies mainly included disease prevention and health care service, main issues in public health, implementation and management of public health, and innovation of PHS and the construction of appropriate public health system could be a focus of researches in future. The key words for the retrieved literatures were categorized into eleven cluster domains, including infectious disease and chronic disease prevention and control, basic public health management, cost estimation of public health project, public health care, basic public health services, health risk control, health surveillance, epidemiology, health risk prediction and early warning, demand on health service, and public health systems in various countries.

  Conclusion  During 2000 – 2019, international researches on public health system were mainly focused on health care reform, health financing, health emergency response, public health issues, health care delivery, public health policy, population health status, and the suitability of the public health system.