Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Congo [The Democratic Republic of the], Côte dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, USA (B), Zambia.
Introduced to Bermuda (B), Northern Mariana Islands (B), Puerto Rico (B).
Extreme southern Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, southern Mali, Sierra Leone and Liberia east to Nigeria, Cameroon, southern Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon south to northern Angola, and DRCongo, western Burundi and northern Zambia. Introduced in Caribbean (Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and Martinique) and in Hawaiian Is.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Orange-cheeked Waxbill (Estrilda melpoda) [XC508910]
by Kim Chuah Lim from Mad Man's crossing, Jimbe drainage, North-western province, Zambia (call)
Orange-cheeked Waxbill (Estrilda melpoda) [XC719128]
by Peter Boesman from Atewa Farmbush, Sagyimase, Ghana (call)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Birds from Andali (northern Adamawa), in eastern Nigeria, described as subspecies tschadensis and others from Lulua Province, in southern DRCongo, as subspecies fucata, but neither appears to differ significantly from birds in rest of species' range.