The breeding range of the northern goshawk extends over one-third of North America and Asia each and perhaps five-sixths of Europe, a total area of over . Densities in western and central Europe were recorded at 3-5 pairs per . In boreal Sweden, numbers vary from 1 to 4.5 pairs per , while in similar habitat in Alaska there were 0.3 to 2.7/. An average of only 1 pair per would give world population of 600,000 breeding birds, likely at least half as many immature and other non-breeders. Recent study found 145,000-160,000 in Europe or 1 pair/ to 1 pair/. The total population of northern goshawks in the world probably ranges well over a million. The total European populations, estimated at as many as 160,000 pairs, makes it the fourth most numerous raptor in the continent, after the common buzzards (>700,000 pairs), Eurasian sparrowhawk (>340,000 pairs) and common kestrel (>330,000 pairs). The most populated countries by goshawks in Europe were Sweden (an estimated 10,000 pairs), Germany (8,500 pairs), Finland (6,000 pairs) and France (5,600 pairs). The highest densities of breeding pairs per of land were in The Netherlands, Latvia and Switzerland, although this is biased due to the small land area of these countries. Russia has a roughly estimated 85,000 pairs of northern goshawk. In North America, there are a broadly estimated 150,000-300,000 individuals. In North America, most western populations at mid-latitudes have approximately 3.6-10.7 pairs. A total of 107 nesting territories (1991-1996) were located on a study area on the Kaibab Plateau, AZ, resulting in a density of 8.4 pairs/. The estimated density in Pennsylvania (1.17 pairs/) suggests that eastern populations may occur at lower densities than western populations, but densities of eastern populations may increase as these populations recover. Typically, populations at far northern latitudes may occur at lower densities than those of southwestern and western populations in North America. Although median densities was similar, populations are overall much denser in Europe than in North America. The hotspots of density for goshawks in Europe lie in east-central Europe (around Poland) and in west-central area (the Netherlands/West Germany). Per the IUCN, the global population is estimated to consist of 1 million to nearly 2.5 million birds, making this one of the most numerous species in its diverse family (the red-tailed hawk and black kite both may have a similar global population size, whereas the Eurasian sparrowhawk and common buzzard are possibly slightly more numerous than goshawks despite their smaller ranges).