The best source of information on the population status of Fox Sparrow is the continental Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Although it cannot distinguish between birds that breed in the United States and Canada, almost all of them spend at least part of the year in Canada. Reliability of the CBC is considered medium, as it samples a large proportion of the winter range and has high precision in its trends, but collects data in a less standardized manner than many other programs. The continental CBC trend shows some fluctuations over time, but overall little change relative to the early 1970s. Although the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) has stricter data collection standards, it is has limited coverage of the northern parts of the breeding range and has only intermediate precision. The national BBS trend differs substantially from the CBC, with a large increase of over 200% relative to the early 1970s, but this may largely reflect trends at the southern edge of the breeding range, and the CBC is probably more indicative of the overall population trend.

The goal for Fox Sparrow is to maintain its population at or above the level it was at in the early 1970s, based on the Christmas Bird Count. Recent data show that the population is within its goal range.