Bushpig are associated with relatively dense vegetation types with available food, cover and water, in forests and riverine or xeric scrub forests and thicket formations. The species occurs over a wide range of altitudes. In East and North-east Africa, they are recorded from the Ethiopian Highlands (Harenna Forest), the highlands of the Albertine Rift (where Red River Hogs have never been recorded), and Mt Kilimanjaro (to 4,000 m). They also occur in areas given over to subsistence farming or to agricultural crops such as sugar cane, maize, peanuts and beans, and may become a serious problem in such areas (Seydack 2013). Their omnivorous diet is spatiotemporally dispersed and relatively large home ranges were reported (Southern Cape Forests: mean 7.2 km², ranging between 3.8 and 10.1 km²: Seydack 2013).

The Bushpig ranges from southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea southwards through East Africa and eastern and southern Democratic Republic of the Congo to Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. There are isolated populations in Angola (and nearby from the lower Zaire River in DRC). In southern Africa, they are absent from Namibia, though they may occur in the Caprivi Strip. In South Africa, they are found in the northern and eastern parts of the country (and neighbouring Swaziland) to southern KwaZulu-Natal. There is then a break in their distribution and they reappear as isolated populations in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces (Seydack 2013). Introduced on Madagascar and the Comoro Islands (Mayotte) off the east coast of Africa (Vercammen et al. 1993).

Bushpigs are present in several well-managed protected areas across their range.