At present, in the global world, multifaceted issues of the development of critical infrastructure in the conditions of the formation of a security environment have become especially relevant. This is due, first, to the fact that critical infrastructure facilities in the countries of the world are subject to real or potential threats created by natural disasters, ecological and man-made disasters, terrorist attacks, and military conflicts. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to determine the trends and key areas of research in the development of critical infrastructure in the context of global challenges and threats based on bibliometric analysis using the VOSviewer software. As a result of the study, it was established that the development of critical infrastructure is a process of transformational changes of priority and strategically important objects, systems, networks for the economy through the transition of key infrastructure components to a qualitatively new level of functioning due to adaptation to the variability and instability of the exogenous environment, taking into account the influence of possible threats, risks and modern challenges. In this regard, the development of critical infrastructure is connected with the processes of its modernization, restoration and reconstruction. In this regard, the article carries out a bibliometric analysis of the relationship between the terms “critical infrastructure development”, “critical infrastructure restoration”, “critical infrastructure reconstruction”, “critical infrastructure modernization”. A network visualization map of citations of articles on the development of critical infrastructure was built using the VOSviewer toolkit. Visualization of the network map of keywords based on bibliographic data made it possible to single out 4 clusters that characterize the key areas of research: identification, adaptation, digitization, disasters and natural disasters. It has been proven that the priority direction of further research should be the substantiation of the National Strategy for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine, taking into accounts the best world practices and the development of recommendations for improving the regulatory and legal support for the development of critical infrastructure from the standpoint of national security. Keywords: national economy, critical infrastructure, critical infrastructure objects, threat, vulnerability, danger, risk, national security, protection, sustainability, transformation, modernization, recovery, bibliometric analysis, trend analysis, cluster analysis, research clusters, international scientometric bases.