diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 97d4d9392..939f97ce6 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -308,7 +308,7 @@ dl_lib = cc.find_library('dl', required : false)
 pthread_lib = dependency('threads')
 dbus_dep = dependency('dbus-1')
 sdl_dep = dependency('sdl2', required : get_option('sdl2'))
-ncurses_dep = dependency('ncurses', required : false)
+ncurses_dep = dependency('ncursesw', required : false)
 sndfile_dep = dependency('sndfile', version : '>= 1.0.20', required : get_option('sndfile'))
 
 gst_option = get_option('gstreamer')
diff --git a/src/tools/pw-top.c b/src/tools/pw-top.c
index 486d4e8dc..9657d341b 100644
--- a/src/tools/pw-top.c
+++ b/src/tools/pw-top.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <signal.h>
 #include <getopt.h>
+#include <locale.h>
 #include <ncurses.h>
 
 #include <spa/utils/result.h>
@@ -495,6 +496,7 @@ int main(int argc, char *argv[])
 	struct timespec value, interval;
 	struct node *n;
 
+	setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
 	pw_init(&argc, &argv);
 
 	spa_list_init(&data.node_list);