Abstract: It is a research hotspot to promote physical activities and in turn improve public health via green environments. The characteristics of green spaces are closely related to the occurrence of physical activities and the health of residents. By applying Citespace and VOSviewer to launch quantitative visual analysis of the literature, and conducting citation analysis with Hisecite, this research analyzes the influencing factors from the three aspects of the classification of physical activities, residents’ personal attributes and social and built environments, and green space characteristics. Most literature maintains the significant relationship between green spaces and physical activities. Due to confusing and unknown factors among physical activities, green spaces and residents’ health levels, as well as unaccountable casual relationship because of limitations of research methods, there exist disputes over the roles of green spaces in the promotion of physical activities and their effecting mechanism on health. In addition, this research has identified two insufficiencies: urban green spaces fail to pay enough attention to physical activities, and the neighboring greening characteristics are rough. Finally, it proposes that further researches are needed on the relationship between green spaces in the residence-neighboring areas and physical activities of residents. The main directions in the future are the shift from qualitative relationship research to the one that combines qualitative and quantitative relationships, and new opportunities from active environmental interventions and multidisciplinary researches.