Desmoulin's whorl snail inhabits calcareous wetlands, where there are tall sedges, saw-sedge (Cladium mariscus), reed-grass (Glyceria maxima) or the reed Phragmites australis.

[6] Within Western Europe, only the populations in England (Great Britain) and Ireland are considered to be viable,[6] although further populations exist in the Czech Republic (critically endangered, occupying the White Carpathians Biosphere Reserve, Kokořínsko Landscape Protected Area and Southern Moravia),[7][8][9] in Poland (critically endangered)[10] and elsewhere in Europe (for example: Netherlands,[11] France).

[12] Its conservation status in the Czech Republic in 2004–2006 was described as favourable (FV) in the report for the European Commission in accordance with the Habitats Directive.

[14] It is also found in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine (Volhynia, critically endangered; around 2014 extinct in Crimea),[15][16] Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

[18] In the United Kingdom, Desmoulin's whorl snail is listed as endangered, although it occurs in a number of areas in a band from Norfolk to Dorset, with outlying populations in Kent and the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales[6] and has probably been under-reported in the past because of its minute size.