The best source of information on the population status of Eastern Wood-Pewee is the Breeding Bird Survey. It provides good coverage of the breeding range, detects the species effectively, and has high precision in its estimates, allowing for high reliability of the results. The national trend shows an ongoing decline from the early 1970s to the early 2010s, with stabilization around that level ever since, roughly two-thirds below its abundance in 1970. There have been large decreases in all Canadian Bird Conservation Regions where Eastern Wood-Pewee regularly breeds, ranging from declines of 55-60% in the southern Prairies and in southern parts of Ontario and Quebec, to over 85% in the southern part of the eastern boreal forest.

The goal for Eastern Wood-Pewee is to increase the population to the level it was at in the early 1970s, based on the Breeding Bird Survey. Trend data show that Eastern Wood-Pewee is far below its goal range although it has shown an increase over the past decade. However, because of the severity of the population decline since the early 1970s, it is not realistic for the goal to be met by 2050. Based on analysis of the historical population loss and potential growth rates, the interim target is to reach 75% of the goal by 2050. Achieving this target, and ultimately reaching the national goal for this species, will require ambitious and long-term conservation action. This is somewhat more ambitious than the objectives in the Management Plan for Eastern Wood-Pewee under the Species at Risk Act, which calls for achieving a stable or increasing trend by 2032 and at minimum maintaining that level of abundance into the future (ECCC, 2023).