Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.
Breeds in north-eastern Brazil (Maranhío and Piauí east to Rio Grande do Norte and Alagoas); and south of Amazon Basin in south-eastern Bolivia (Tarija, Chuquisaca and Santa Cruz), Paraguay, northern Argentina (south to Tucumán, Santiago del Estero and Santa Fe; recently also in Misiones) and southern Brazil (central Mato Grosso do Sul east to northern Rio de Janeiro, and south to central Sío Paulo; possibly also Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul). Non-breeding visitor throughout northern South America north to eastern Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, also eastern Ecuador, north-eastern Peru and much of Brazil.
 
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Lined Seedeater (Sporophila lineola) [XC521914]
by Caio Brito from S\u00e3o Francisco do Sul, Santa Catarina, Brazil (song)
Lined Seedeater (Sporophila lineola) [XC513871]
by Guilherme Willrich from Floresta Estadual Edmundo Navarro de Andrade (FEENA), Rio Claro, S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
Molecular evidence suggests that genus is closely related to Oryzoborus, which should perhaps be subsumed within it. Further, that both genera should be placed in the tanager family (Thraupidae). Forms a superspecies with Lesson's Seedeater (Sporophila bouvronides) and has been treated as conspecific.