Anguilla, Antigua And Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts And Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Suriname, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB).
Vagrant to Jamaica, St Pierre and Miquelon (P).
Eastern North America southern from Kansas, extreme southern Ontario and Massachusetts. Winters from southern USA (south-eastern Texas and Louisiana) south through Central America to northern South America; and from northern Florida south through Bahamas to Greater Antilles, and east to Virgin Is.
 
Population
Estimated population is 15,000,000 (2010).
Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) [XC862206]
by Patrick J. Blake from Wakefield, Sussex County, Virginia, United States (song)
Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostomus carolinensis) [XC728671]
by Jack Hurd from Tillinghast Pond Management Area (near West Greenwich), Kent County, Rhode Island, United States (call, song)
Subspecies
May form superspecies with Rufous Nightjar (Antrostomus rufus), with which has even been considered conspecific, but differs notably in both voice and morphology.