Wozencraft (2005) recognised 11 subspecies of Martes foina throughout its Palaearctic distribution. The majority of subspecies are listed for Europe including both mainland as well as insular populations. Recent molecular studies revealed weak genetic differentiation, suggesting that some European taxa could represent a single taxonomic unit (Vergara et al. 2015, Tsoupaset al. 2019).

SYNONYMS only for Europe: dorsalis Seabra, 1909 [“Ribatejo”, central Portugal]; ferruginea Seabra, 1909 [Alentejo and Évora, southern Portugal]; grisea Seabra, 1909 [“Ribatejo”, central Portugal]; widdringtonii Gray, 1842 [Sierra Morena, southern Spain].

European regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)

This species is listed as Least Concern for both Europe and for the EU 27 Member States in view of its wide distribution, its large population, its occurrence in a number of protected areas, and because it is unlikely to be declining at nearly the rate required to qualify for listing in a threatened category.

In Europe the Stone Marten is found from the Iberian Peninsula in the west, throughout central and Southern Europe (including Crete and Rhodes) to the Baltic region in the north, and as far eastward as the Volga River. The northern limit of its range is Denmark. The distribution of the Stone Marten has increased in many European countries. In the Netherlands the Stone Marten was found along the border with Germany in 1980, but the species range has now expanded to include central portions of the country, both in the south and the north (Proulx et al. 2004). The Stone Marten is widespread in Portugal (but absent from the Atlantic islands, including Madeira and the Azores), France (except Corsica), Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Greece, Italy, Czechia, Albania (except for the Alps) and Croatia. In Spain the Stone Marten is widespread but absent from coastal environments and areas intensively farmed for cereal crops. It became extinct from Ibiza, Balearic Islands (Spain) in the early 1970s (Delibes and Amores 1986); most probably, this population had an introduced origin. In Romania distribution is patchy and partly overlaps that of the Pine Marten. In Lithuania the Stone Marten is not as common as the Pine Marten, and its distribution is patchy, with greater population densities in the south. In Latvia and Estonia the species is rare, and considered to be at the periphery of its northeastward distribution. The Stone Marten is present in Ukraine and European Russia (including the Crimea and the North Caucasus). In European Russia it occurs eastward to the Volga River. At the end of the 20th century, the species extended its range in European Russia as far as the Moscow area in the north and along the Volga River in the east (Abramov et al. 2006). The Stone Marten is absent from Ireland, Great Britain, the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland and northern European Russia.

The Stone Marten is distributed southward throughout the Caucasus Mountains to Asia Minor and Levant, where it is known from Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Türkiye and Iran. In the south-west is it found in Israel from where Werner (2012) traced no records from the southern part of the country. There are fragments in the Kopet Dag and Khorosan Mts. It is found throughout the mountains of Central and Inner Asia, southward to the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau, eastward to the Hebei Mts, northward to the Altai-SayanMts and Tyva Republic. Along the Himalayas it occurs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal and Bhutan; the occurrence in northern Myanmar is doubtful.
The Stone Marten was introduced to southeastern Wisconsin, USA (Long 1995).

The Stone Marten is considered common throughout most of Europe except peripheral parts of the species range (Macdonald and Barrett 1993). In most countries where it occurs, the Stone Marten is a legally harvested species with stable or increasing populations (Proulx et al. 2004). Populations in western and Central Europe have increased since the 1960s and 1970s. The Stone Marten is recolonising areas in the Netherlands from which it had disappeared.

The habitat preferences of Martes foina vary in different parts of its range. The Stone Marten prefers more open areas than other Martes species and appears to avoid dense coniferous forests, being typically found in deciduous forests, forest edges and open rocky hillsides (sometimes above the tree line). It occurs in cultivated areas, sometimes in close proximity to humans. In fragmented agricultural landscapes Stone Martens prefer areas with the wood and scrub vegetation and watercourses with continuous vegetation along their verges and avoid arable lands (Heptner et al. 1967). The Stone Marten is synanthropic in most parts of its geographic range in northern, eastern and Central Europe (Virgós et al. 2012). In central and Southern Europe, it is very common in (sub)urban areas, often living practically side by side with humans. In some areas it is common in towns, including big cities (Tóth et al. 2009). Urban Stone Martens can damage roofs, insulation and even electrical wiring and pipes in houses and motor-cars (Herr et al. 2009).

In most countries where the Stone Marten occurs, it is a legally harvested species with stable populations. There is no evidence that these potential threats are intensive enough to cause declines across significant parts of the species range. However, in the Iberian Peninsula, the Stone Marten could be threatened by non-selective predator control programs, particularly poisons and rodenticides, and habitat loss (deforestation, summer fires, afforestation with Eucalyptus) (Proulx et al. 2004).

This species is harvested for fur in some countries.

The Stone Marten is listed on Appendix III of the Bern Convention.