diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 1964b1aa87b..f74a0bf3b2d 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -828,6 +828,13 @@ ntp_servers = get_option('ntp-servers')
 conf.set_quoted('NTP_SERVERS', ntp_servers)
 substs.set('NTP_SERVERS', ntp_servers)
 
+default_locale = get_option('default-locale')
+if default_locale == ''
+        choose_default_locale_sh = find_program('tools/choose-default-locale.sh')
+        default_locale = run_command(choose_default_locale_sh).stdout().strip()
+endif
+conf.set_quoted('SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_LOCALE', default_locale)
+
 conf.set_quoted('GETTEXT_PACKAGE', meson.project_name())
 
 substs.set('SUSHELL', get_option('debug-shell'))
@@ -3096,7 +3103,8 @@ status = [
         'default DNS-over-TLS mode:         @0@'.format(default_dns_over_tls),
         'default cgroup hierarchy:          @0@'.format(default_hierarchy),
         'default net.naming-scheme setting: @0@'.format(default_net_naming_scheme),
-        'default KillUserProcesses setting: @0@'.format(kill_user_processes)]
+        'default KillUserProcesses setting: @0@'.format(kill_user_processes),
+        'default locale:                    @0@'.format(default_locale)]
 
 alt_dns_servers = '\n                                            '.join(dns_servers.split(' '))
 alt_ntp_servers = '\n                                            '.join(ntp_servers.split(' '))
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 1423b8998e5..3474265bd35 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -195,6 +195,8 @@ option('default-kill-user-processes', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'the default value for KillUserProcesses= setting')
 option('gshadow', type : 'boolean',
        description : 'support for shadow group')
+option('default-locale', type : 'string', value : '',
+       description : 'default locale used when /etc/locale.conf does not exist')
 
 option('default-dnssec', type : 'combo',
        description : 'default DNSSEC mode',
diff --git a/src/core/locale-setup.c b/src/core/locale-setup.c
index 584fb220a10..aa4a89c17ab 100644
--- a/src/core/locale-setup.c
+++ b/src/core/locale-setup.c
@@ -74,9 +74,9 @@ int locale_setup(char ***environment) {
         }
 
         if (strv_isempty(add)) {
-                /* If no locale is configured then default to C.UTF-8. */
+                /* If no locale is configured then default to compile-time default. */
 
-                add = strv_new("LANG=C.UTF-8");
+                add = strv_new("LANG=" SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_LOCALE);
                 if (!add)
                         return -ENOMEM;
         }
diff --git a/tools/choose-default-locale.sh b/tools/choose-default-locale.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..43087980a94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/choose-default-locale.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+
+# Fedora uses C.utf8 but Debian uses C.UTF-8
+if locale -a | grep -xq -E 'C\.(utf8|UTF-8)'; then
+        echo 'C.UTF-8'
+elif locale -a | grep -xqF 'en_US.utf8'; then
+        echo 'en_US.UTF-8'
+else
+        echo 'C'
+fi