diff --git a/homeassistant/components/recorder/migration.py b/homeassistant/components/recorder/migration.py
index c694aa678f0..24220a27eee 100644
--- a/homeassistant/components/recorder/migration.py
+++ b/homeassistant/components/recorder/migration.py
@@ -507,6 +507,17 @@ def _apply_update(engine, session, new_version, old_version):  # noqa: C901
             "statistics",
             ["sum_increase DOUBLE PRECISION"],
         )
+        # Try to change the character set of the statistic_meta table
+        if engine.dialect.name == "mysql":
+            try:
+                connection.execute(
+                    text(
+                        "ALTER TABLE statistics_meta CONVERT TO "
+                        "CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci"
+                    )
+                )
+            except SQLAlchemyError:
+                pass
     else:
         raise ValueError(f"No schema migration defined for version {new_version}")
 
diff --git a/homeassistant/components/recorder/models.py b/homeassistant/components/recorder/models.py
index 11c614c9ea1..0a4362ba68c 100644
--- a/homeassistant/components/recorder/models.py
+++ b/homeassistant/components/recorder/models.py
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@ class Statistics(Base):  # type: ignore
     __table_args__ = (
         # Used for fetching statistics for a certain entity at a specific time
         Index("ix_statistics_statistic_id_start", "metadata_id", "start"),
+        {"mysql_default_charset": "utf8mb4", "mysql_collate": "utf8mb4_unicode_ci"},
     )
     __tablename__ = TABLE_STATISTICS
     id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)