Brown bears could once be found across most of Eurasia, compared to the more limited range today. General habitats included areas such as grassland, sparsely vegetated land, and wetlands.

Although included as of Least Concern on the 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (which refers to the global species, not to the Eurasian brown bear specifically), local populations, specifically those in the European Union, are becoming increasingly scarce.[16] As the IUCN itself adds: "Least Concern does not always mean that species are not at risk. There are declining species that are evaluated as Least Concern."

The brown bear has long been extinct in Britain (at least 1,500 years ago, possibly even 3,000 years ago),[17][18] Denmark (about 6,500 years ago),[19] the Netherlands (about 1,000 years ago, although later singles rarely wandered from Germany),[20] Belgium and Luxembourg, with more recent extinctions in Germany (in the year 1835, although singles wandering from Italy were recorded in 2006 and 2019),[21][22] Switzerland (in 1904, although a single was seen in 1923 and since 2005 there has been an increasing number of sightings of wanderers from Italy),[23][24] and Portugal (in 1843, although a wanderer from Spain was recorded in 2019).[25]

The largest brown bear population in Europe is in Russia, where it has now recovered from an all-time low caused by intensive hunting.