diff --git a/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/README.md b/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/README.md
index bc01aa9f..66862fd3 100644
--- a/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/README.md
+++ b/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/README.md
@@ -74,6 +74,13 @@ initialization by passing `-e VAR=VALUE` to the Docker run command.
 **`POSTGRESQL_ADMIN_PASSWORD`**  
        Password for the `postgres` admin account (optional)
 
+The following environment variables are optional, and only used when the database is initialzed
+
+**`POSTGRESQL_ENCODING`**
+	Database encoding. Default to UTF8
+
+**`POSTGRESQL_LOCALE`**
+	Database locale. Default to en_US
 
 Alternatively, the following options are related to migration scenario:
 
diff --git a/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/common.sh b/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/common.sh
index a8592ffe..3107b1b0 100644
--- a/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/common.sh
+++ b/src/root/usr/share/container-scripts/postgresql/common.sh
@@ -190,7 +190,10 @@ initdb_wrapper ()
   # Initialize the database cluster with utf8 support enabled by default.
   # This might affect performance, see:
   # http://www.postgresql.org/docs/{{ spec.version }}/static/locale.html
-  LANG=${LANG:-en_US.utf8} "$@"
+  ENCODING=${POSTGRESQL_ENCODING:-UTF8}
+  LOCALE=${POSTGRESQL_LOCALE:-en_US}
+  if [ ${LOCALE} == "C" ] ; then LANG=C ; fi
+  LANG=${LANG:-$LOCALE.$ENCODING} "$@" -E $ENCODING
 }
 
 function initialize_database() {
@@ -223,7 +226,16 @@ EOF
 function create_users() {
   if [[ ",$postinitdb_actions," = *,simple_db,* ]]; then
     createuser "$POSTGRESQL_USER"
-    createdb --owner="$POSTGRESQL_USER" "$POSTGRESQL_DATABASE"
+
+    EXTRA_ARGS=""
+    if [ -v POSTGRESQL_ENCODING ]; then
+       EXTRA_ARGS="$EXTRA_ARGS -E $POSTGRESQL_ENCODING"
+    fi
+    if [ -v POSTGRESQL_LOCALE ]; then
+       EXTRA_ARGS="$EXTRA_ARGS -l $POSTGRESQL_LOCALE"
+    fi
+
+    createdb $EXTRA_ARGS --owner="$POSTGRESQL_USER" "$POSTGRESQL_DATABASE"
   fi
 
   if [ -v POSTGRESQL_MASTER_USER ]; then
diff --git a/test/run_test b/test/run_test
index 14860eae..19dfdf18 100755
--- a/test/run_test
+++ b/test/run_test
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ run_s2i_enable_ssl_test
 run_upgrade_test
 run_migration_test
 run_pgaudit_test
+run_locales_test
 "
 
 test $# -eq 1 -a "${1-}" == --list && echo "$TEST_LIST" && exit 0
@@ -898,6 +899,54 @@ EOSQL"
   grep -E 'AUDIT: SESSION,.*,.*,READ,SELECT,,,SELECT' "${data_dir}"/userdata/log/postgresql-*.log
 }
 
+function run_locales_test() {
+  local data_dir config_dir name=pg-test-locales-1
+  # create a dir for data
+  create_volume_dir
+  data_dir="${volume_dir}"
+
+  DOCKER_ARGS="-e POSTGRESQL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=Mellon
+               -e POSTGRESQL_LOCALE=en_GB
+               -e POSTGRESQL_ENCODING=ISO885915
+               -v ${data_dir}:/var/lib/pgsql/data:Z" create_container $name
+
+  wait_ready "$name"
+
+  # LATIN9 is a alias for ISO885915
+  docker exec -i $(get_cid "$name") bash -c "psql <<EOSQL
+  SHOW SERVER_ENCODING;
+EOSQL" | grep LATIN9
+
+  docker exec -i $(get_cid "$name") bash -c "psql <<EOSQL
+  SHOW LC_COLLATE;
+EOSQL" | grep -vi LC_COLLA | grep en_GB
+
+  docker stop "$(get_cid "$name")"
+
+  name=pg-test-locales-2
+  # create a dir for data
+  create_volume_dir
+  data_dir="${volume_dir}"
+
+  DOCKER_ARGS="-e POSTGRESQL_ADMIN_PASSWORD=Natoar23ae
+               -e POSTGRESQL_LOCALE=C
+               -e POSTGRESQL_ENCODING=UTF8
+               -v ${data_dir}:/var/lib/pgsql/data:Z" create_container $name
+
+  wait_ready "$name"
+
+  docker exec -i $(get_cid "$name") bash -c "psql <<EOSQL
+  SHOW SERVER_ENCODING;
+EOSQL" | grep UTF8
+
+  docker exec -i $(get_cid "$name") bash -c "psql <<EOSQL
+  SHOW LC_COLLATE;
+EOSQL" | grep -vi LC_COLLA | grep C
+
+  docker stop "$(get_cid "$name")"
+
+}
+
 function run_all_tests() {
   for test_case in $TEST_LIST; do
     : "Running test $test_case"