diff --git a/pg16/Dockerfile b/pg16/Dockerfile
index 523fe59..1ef0103 100644
--- a/pg16/Dockerfile
+++ b/pg16/Dockerfile
@@ -39,6 +39,20 @@ LABEL fly.version=${VERSION}
 LABEL fly.pg-version=${PG_VERSION}
 LABEL fly.pg-manager=repmgr
 
+# make the "en_US.UTF-8" locale so postgres will be utf-8 enabled by default
+RUN set -eux; \
+	if [ -f /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker ]; then \
+    # if this file exists, we're likely in "debian:xxx-slim", and locales are thus being excluded so we need to remove that exclusion (since we need locales)
+		grep -q '/usr/share/locale' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+		sed -ri '/\/usr\/share\/locale/d' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+		! grep -q '/usr/share/locale' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+	fi; \
+	apt-get update; apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends locales; rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
+	echo 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8' >> /etc/locale.gen; \
+	locale-gen; \
+	locale -a | grep 'en_US.utf8'
+ENV LANG en_US.utf8
+
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
     ca-certificates iproute2 curl bash dnsutils vim socat procps ssh gnupg rsync barman-cli barman barman-cli-cloud python3-setuptools cron gosu \
     && apt autoremove -y && apt clean && \
diff --git a/pg16/Dockerfile-timescaledb b/pg16/Dockerfile-timescaledb
index 700ab7b..e983599 100644
--- a/pg16/Dockerfile-timescaledb
+++ b/pg16/Dockerfile-timescaledb
@@ -38,6 +38,20 @@ LABEL fly.version=${VERSION}
 LABEL fly.pg-version=${PG_VERSION}
 LABEL fly.pg-manager=repmgr
 
+# make the "en_US.UTF-8" locale so postgres will be utf-8 enabled by default
+RUN set -eux; \
+	if [ -f /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker ]; then \
+    # if this file exists, we're likely in "debian:xxx-slim", and locales are thus being excluded so we need to remove that exclusion (since we need locales)
+		grep -q '/usr/share/locale' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+		sed -ri '/\/usr\/share\/locale/d' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+		! grep -q '/usr/share/locale' /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/docker; \
+	fi; \
+	apt-get update; apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends locales; rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*; \
+	echo 'en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8' >> /etc/locale.gen; \
+	locale-gen; \
+	locale -a | grep 'en_US.utf8'
+ENV LANG en_US.utf8
+
 RUN apt-get update && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
     ca-certificates iproute2 curl bash dnsutils vim socat procps ssh gnupg rsync barman-cli barman barman-cli-cloud python3-setuptools cron gosu \
     && apt autoremove -y && apt clean && \