national vs public

national

adj
  • Pertaining to a nation or country, especially as a whole; affecting, shared by, or existing throughout all of a nation. 

  • Belonging to or characteristic of a specific nation or country, as opposed to others. 

noun
  • A subject of a nation. 

  • A tournament in which participants from all over the nation compete. 

  • A national newspaper. 

public

adj
  • Pertaining to the people as a whole (as opposed to a private group); concerning the whole country, community etc. 

  • Able to be seen or known by everyone; open to general view, happening without concealment. 

  • Officially representing the community; carried out or funded by the state on behalf of the community. 

  • Traded publicly via a stock market. 

  • Open to all members of a community; especially, provided by national or local authorities and supported by money from taxes. 

  • Accessible to the program in general, not only to the class or any subclasses. 

noun
  • The people in general, regardless of membership of any particular group. 

  • A particular group or demographic to be targeted. 

How often have the words national and public occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )