Struthio camelus and S. molybdophanes (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as S. camelus following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

Struthio camelus occurs throughout much of Africa, with a range encompassing Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola, Namibia, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The subspecies syriacus of the Middle East is extinct, probably since around 1966 (del Hoyo et al. 1992).

The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be frequent to abundant throughout most of its range (del Hoyo et al. 1992).