diff --git a/src/uu/wc/BENCHMARKING.md b/src/uu/wc/BENCHMARKING.md
index ff0c61a3f44..62f852f937e 100644
--- a/src/uu/wc/BENCHMARKING.md
+++ b/src/uu/wc/BENCHMARKING.md
@@ -80,6 +80,12 @@ candidate as it's fairly large.
 Use [`hyperfine`](https://github.com/sharkdp/hyperfine) to compare the
 performance. For example, `hyperfine 'wc somefile' 'uuwc somefile'`.
 
+Run the UTF-8 character-count benchmark with an explicit UTF-8 locale:
+
+```shell
+LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 cargo bench -p uu_wc --bench wc_bench -- wc_chars_utf8
+```
+
 If you want to get fancy and exhaustive, generate a table:
 
 |                         |   moby64.txt |   odyssey256.txt |   25Mshortlines |   /usr/bin/docker |
diff --git a/src/uu/wc/benches/wc_bench.rs b/src/uu/wc/benches/wc_bench.rs
index 6abcb5efd4a..bc752bd7694 100644
--- a/src/uu/wc/benches/wc_bench.rs
+++ b/src/uu/wc/benches/wc_bench.rs
@@ -78,6 +78,17 @@ fn wc_chars_large_line_count(bencher: Bencher, num_lines: usize) {
         .bench_values(|args| black_box(uumain(args)));
 }
 
+#[divan::bench(args = [100_000])]
+fn wc_chars_utf8(bencher: Bencher, num_lines: usize) {
+    let temp_dir = tempfile::tempdir().unwrap();
+    let data = "hello ä € 💩\n".repeat(num_lines);
+    let file_path = create_test_file(data.as_bytes(), temp_dir.path());
+
+    bencher
+        .with_inputs(|| get_bench_args(&[&"-m", &file_path]).into_iter())
+        .bench_values(|args| black_box(uumain(args)));
+}
+
 /// Benchmark word counting on large line counts
 #[divan::bench(args = [100_000])]
 fn wc_words_large_line_count(bencher: Bencher, num_lines: usize) {
@@ -115,5 +126,10 @@ fn wc_lines_extreme_line_lengths(bencher: Bencher, (num_lines, line_len): (usize
 }
 
 fn main() {
+    // Set the locale before its first use, since character encoding is cached.
+    // SAFETY: The benchmark runner has not started any threads yet.
+    unsafe {
+        std::env::set_var("LC_ALL", "C.UTF-8");
+    }
     divan::main();
 }