The pallid shiner was first discovered in the early 1900s in the St. Croix River north of Taylors Falls, and its population has been declining since.

[5] Today the pallid shiner can be found in the Mississippi river basin from southern Wisconsin and Minnesota to Louisiana.

Historically the pallid shiner was abundant in the state of Missouri, but the populations there declined greatly.

The pallid shiner is listed as least concern because, although its distribution and abundance have been reduced, the number of subpopulations and populations are still relatively large and have not declined greatly.

[1] Until recently the pallid shiner was thought to have become regionally extinct in Illinois, but was then rediscovered in the Kankakee River.