The research aims to be analyzed using scientific mapping to visually examine similarities and differences in population-based mental health research trends during COVID-19 and to provide references for related research in COVID-19 pandemic. The databases of the Web of Science and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure were used to retrieve the literature on population based mental health during the COVID-19 from 2019 to 2020 and the visual analysis software Citespace5.7 R1 was used to quantify the COVID-19 literature. The co-occurrence word clustering analysis included the regions, institutions, funding supports, themes and contents, and author collaborations. Results 2,193 relevant articles were obtained. The co-occurrence word clustering analysis showed that there was more research on population-based mental health with regard to telemedicine, lifestyle, dissemination of social media, protection behavioural consciousness, psychological reactions among different groups, public mental states, including fear, anxiety, and depression, whereas research in China was mainly on the psychological situation during the COVID-19 pandemic, prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological mechanisms, cognition about COVID-19, psychological nursing, and stress reactions. The literature published by Chinese researchers on population-based mental health has a significant impact on the academic world.