diff --git a/lib/libdpv/dpv.c b/lib/libdpv/dpv.c
index 6a03922ff9fd..d3506ca9d82d 100644
--- a/lib/libdpv/dpv.c
+++ b/lib/libdpv/dpv.c
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ __FBSDID("$FreeBSD$");
 #include <dialog.h>
 #include <err.h>
 #include <limits.h>
+#include <locale.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
@@ -482,6 +483,11 @@ dpv(struct dpv_config *config, struct dpv_file_node *file_list)
 		/* Reads: label_size pbar_size pprompt aprompt dpv_nfiles */
 		/* Inits: dheight and dwidth */
 
+	/* Default localeconv(3) settings for dialog(3) status */
+	setlocale(LC_NUMERIC,
+		getenv("LC_ALL") == NULL && getenv("LC_NUMERIC") == NULL ?
+		LC_NUMERIC_DEFAULT : "");
+
 	if (!debug) {
 		/* Internally create the initial `--gauge' prompt text */
 		dprompt_recreate(file_list, (struct dpv_file_node *)NULL, 0);
diff --git a/lib/libdpv/dpv.h b/lib/libdpv/dpv.h
index dbcd59bd67c0..03768a7ced40 100644
--- a/lib/libdpv/dpv.h
+++ b/lib/libdpv/dpv.h
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@
 #define FALSE 0
 #endif
 
+/* localeconv(3) */
+#define LC_NUMERIC_DEFAULT	"en_US.ISO8859-1"
+
 /* Data to process */
 extern long long dpv_overall_read;