This paper presents the main characteristics of the postgraduate programs in Public Health comparing them to other areas that are part of the Larger Health Area and to the whole ensemble of domains of knowledge as defined by the Brazilian research and higher education agencies. In addition to the description of the growth of the programs, several structural and evaluation-connected aspects are analyzed. The majority of the information was assembled with data from the Capes website in its area dedicated to the evaluation of programs, after they were made available at the beginning of 2008. For comparative purposes data relative to the established research capabilities, abstracted from the 2006 census of the CNPq research groups, are presented. Some data on the area's periodicals is also presented. Finally, some of the challenges faced by the field are commented.
Public Health; postgraduate programs; evaluation; intellectual production
