1 Introduction

For the first time ever, the European Journal of Public Health is publishing this supplement with the accepted, peer-reviewed abstracts of the 16th World Congress on Public Health (WCPH2020), held 12–16 October 2020 This Congress is organized by the World Federation of Public Health Associations, the European Public Health Association and the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health This World Congress is unlike any previous versions, as—due to the COVID-19 pandemic—it will be a 100% virtual congress This posed several challenges to the organizers and the field of public health at global level, but—thanks to the commitment of public health professionals worldwide—also offered new opportunities to network, exchange knowledge and learn from each other For the WCPH2020, we received a record number of 3764 single abstracts and 260 workshop proposals Abstracts and workshops were received from 107 countries This made the task of the International Scientific Committee (ISC) more time-consuming, and we are extremely grateful to the 134 experts from 36 countries who scored the abstracts and the workshops The abstracts were scored on a scale of 0–7 The ISC was chaired by Prof Martin McKee, UK The scoring members of the ISC are listed below An extra call for abstracts relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was launched in June and 65 Abstracts and 8 Workshops were received This resulted in a full congress track dedicated to COVID-19