diff --git a/package/python/Config.in b/package/python/Config.in
index b1c0935415..a0c78c6788 100644
--- a/package/python/Config.in
+++ b/package/python/Config.in
@@ -84,6 +84,24 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UNICODEDATA
 	help
 	  Unicode character database (used by stringprep module) (large).
 
+if BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UNICODEDATA
+
+choice
+	prompt "Python unicode database format"
+	default BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UCS2
+	help
+	  Select Python unicode database format for target
+
+config BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UCS2
+	bool "Universal Character Set 2-byte (UCS2)"
+
+config BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UCS4
+	bool "Universal Character Set 4-byte (UCS4)"
+
+endchoice
+
+endif
+
 config BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_SQLITE
 	bool "sqlite module"
 	select BR2_PACKAGE_SQLITE
diff --git a/package/python/python.mk b/package/python/python.mk
index bc42e8f14f..6187d66e7d 100644
--- a/package/python/python.mk
+++ b/package/python/python.mk
@@ -102,6 +102,11 @@ ifneq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UNICODEDATA),y)
 PYTHON_CONF_OPT += --disable-unicodedata
 endif
 
+# Default is UCS2 w/o a conf opt
+ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_UCS4),y)
+PYTHON_CONF_OPT += --enable-unicode=ucs4
+endif
+
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_PYTHON_BZIP2),y)
 PYTHON_DEPENDENCIES += bzip2
 else