Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Canada (B), Cayman Islands, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica (NB), Martinique, Mexico, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Pierre and Miquelon (P), St Vincent and The Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, USA (B), Venezuela, Virgin Islands (British) (NB), Virgin Islands (U.S.) (NB).
Vagrant to Faroe Islands, France, Germany, Greenland, Ireland, United Kingdom.
Breeds in south-eastern Canada (south-eastern Manitoba east to Nova Scotia) and eastern USA (Minnesota, Michigan and New England south, excluding most of southern Great Lakes area, to Gulf of Mexico coast and central Florida). Winters from eastern Mexico south to central Panama, and in West Indies; also winters in smaller numbers in southern Florida and Bermuda.
 
Population
Estimated population is 7,300,000 (2010).
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) [XC358425]
by Sue Riffe from North Carolina (near Durham), Durham County, North Carolina, United States (song)
Northern Parula (Setophaga americana) [XC245893]
by Hal Mitchell from Orick, Humboldt County, California, Canada (song)
Subspecies
No subspecies.
A study of mitochondrial DNA has suggested that genus as currently constituted is not monophyletic, with present species and Tropical Parula (Setophaga pitiayumi) closer to Dendroica, and Flame-throated Warbler (Oreothlypis gutturalis) and Crescent-chested Warbler (Oreothlypis superciliosa) closer to Vermivora. Has hybridized with Yellow-throated Warbler (Setophaga dominica), as well as with American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) and Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata). Forms a superspecies with Tropical Parula (Setophaga pitiayumi) and sometimes regarded as conspecific, but the two differ in migratory behaviour and in some plumage characters.
North-eastern populations proposed as subspecies pusilla (described from Pennsylvania) and western ones as subspecies ludoviciana (from Mississippi Valley). Both generally considered insufficiently differentiated to warrant recognition.