Abstract: Safe drinking water is crucial for the wellbeing and economic development of rural residents. Traditional water treatment technology in rural areas cannot meet the current demand for a safe water supply. This study combined bibliometrics with a VOSviewer visualization tool to analyze the state of research on rural drinking water within China and internationally. The study found that both Chinese and international research focused mainly on ensuring safe rural drinking water and improving water quality. However, compared with international research, there was relatively less emphasis on drinking water management and treatment technologies in China. Analysis show that fluoride control and risk assessment in drinking water have become the main development directions for rural drinking water treatment in China. Meanwhile, ensuring safe water supply, ultrafiltration technology, and traditional filtration technology have emerged as the main development directions and key technologies for rural drinking water treatment in other countries. We reviewed the progress of membrane technology research in the removal of pollutants in rural drinking water and found that nanofiltration technology was highly efficient at removing iron, manganese, arsenic, and fluoride from contaminated drinking water, indicating a good application prospect. We summarized the application of hybrid ultrafiltration membrane technology for drinking water in rural areas, on the basis of the water source properties, treatment process, and performance. We suggest a range of applications of membrane technology in rural areas. This review provides technical support for safe rural drinking water and promotes the high-quality development of the rural water supply.