diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 3e9925371..6c5ec3e 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Package: osmdata
 Title: Import 'OpenStreetMap' Data as Simple Features or Spatial Objects
-Version: 0.2.5.018
+Version: 0.2.5.019
 Authors@R: c(
     person("Mark", "Padgham", , "mark.padgham@email.com", role = c("aut", "cre")),
     person("Bob", "Rudis", role = "aut"),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 56ddfda..1192d3d 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 - Improved `get_bb(..., format_out = "sf_polygon")` to return full metadata
   along with geometries (#338 thanks to @RegularnaMatrica)
 - Mention key-only feature requests in README (#342 thanks to @joostschouppe)
+- Set encoding to UTF-8 for tags and user names (#347)
 
 
 0.2.5
diff --git a/R/get-osmdata-df.R b/R/get-osmdata-df.R
index 12ed530..6f0409a 100644
--- a/R/get-osmdata-df.R
+++ b/R/get-osmdata-df.R
@@ -75,7 +75,8 @@ osmdata_data_frame <- function (q,
             colClasses = "character", # osm_id doesn't fit in integer
             check.names = FALSE,
             comment.char = "",
-            stringsAsFactors = stringsAsFactors
+            stringsAsFactors = stringsAsFactors,
+            encoding = "UTF-8"
         )
     } else if (isTRUE (obj$meta$query_type == "adiff")) {
         datetime_from <- obj$meta$datetime_from
@@ -162,7 +163,7 @@ xml_to_df <- function (doc, stringsAsFactors = FALSE) {
             osm_id = rownames (res [[i]]),
             center [[i]],
             meta [[i]],
-            tags [[i]],
+            setenc_utf8(tags [[i]]),
             stringsAsFactors = stringsAsFactors,
             check.names = FALSE
         )
@@ -225,6 +226,7 @@ xml_adiff_to_df <- function (doc,
         tagV <- vapply (tag, function (x) x, FUN.VALUE = character (2))
         m [i, tagV [1, ]] <- tagV [2, ]
     }
+    Encoding(m) <- "UTF-8"
 
     osm_type <- xml2::xml_name (osm_obj)
     osm_id <- xml2::xml_attr (osm_obj, "id")
@@ -325,6 +327,7 @@ get_meta_from_xml <- function (osm_obj) {
             osm_uid = xml2::xml_attr (osm_obj, attr = "uid"),
             osm_user = xml2::xml_attr (osm_obj, attr = "user")
         )
+        Encoding(out$osm_user) <- "UTF-8"
 
     } else {
         out <- matrix (nrow = length (osm_obj), ncol = 0)
diff --git a/R/get-osmdata-sc.R b/R/get-osmdata-sc.R
index 935c448..8aeb1a3 100644
--- a/R/get-osmdata-sc.R
+++ b/R/get-osmdata-sc.R
@@ -75,6 +75,12 @@ osmdata_sc <- function (q, doc, quiet = TRUE) {
         overpass_version = temp$obj$meta$overpass_version
     )
 
+    has_tags <- c ("nodes", "relation_properties", "object")
+    obj [has_tags] <- lapply(obj [has_tags], function (x) {
+        x [, c ("key", "value")] <- setenc_utf8 (x [, c ("key", "value")])
+        x
+    })
+
     if (!missing (q)) {
         if (!is.character (q)) {
             obj$meta$bbox <- q$bbox
diff --git a/R/get-osmdata-sf.R b/R/get-osmdata-sf.R
index fed33c7..a0d9612 100644
--- a/R/get-osmdata-sf.R
+++ b/R/get-osmdata-sf.R
@@ -62,8 +62,9 @@ osmdata_sf <- function (q, doc, quiet = TRUE, stringsAsFactors = FALSE) { # noli
     if (!"osm_id" %in% names (res$polygons_kv)[1]) {
         res <- fill_kv (res, "polygons_kv", "polygons", stringsAsFactors)
     }
-    kv_df <- grep ("_kv$", names (res))
-    res[kv_df] <- fix_columns_list (res[kv_df])
+    kv_df <- grep ("_kv$", names (res)) # objects with tags
+    res [kv_df] <- fix_columns_list (res[kv_df])
+    res [kv_df] <- lapply (res [kv_df], setenc_utf8)
 
     if (missing (q)) {
         obj$bbox <- paste (res$bbox, collapse = " ")
diff --git a/R/get-osmdata-sp.R b/R/get-osmdata-sp.R
index c14c1d6..3eec7e1 100644
--- a/R/get-osmdata-sp.R
+++ b/R/get-osmdata-sp.R
@@ -71,7 +71,11 @@ osmdata_sp <- function (q, doc, quiet = TRUE) {
     obj$osm_multipolygons <- res$multipolygons
 
     osm_items <- grep ("^osm_", names (obj))
-    obj[osm_items] <- fix_columns_list (obj[osm_items])
+    obj [osm_items] <- fix_columns_list (obj [osm_items])
+    obj [osm_items] <- lapply (obj [osm_items], function (x) {
+        x@data <- setenc_utf8 (x@data)
+        x
+    })
     class (obj) <- c (class (obj), "osmdata_sp")
 
     return (obj)
diff --git a/R/get-osmdata.R b/R/get-osmdata.R
index 3282216..0624576 100644
--- a/R/get-osmdata.R
+++ b/R/get-osmdata.R
@@ -344,3 +344,20 @@ get_center_from_cpp_output <- function (res, what = "points") {
 
     return (as.data.frame (this))
 }
+
+
+#' Set encoding to UTF-8
+#'
+#' @param x a data.frame or a list.
+#'
+#' @return `x` with all the columns or items of type character with UTF-8 encoding set.
+#' @noRd
+setenc_utf8 <- function(x) {
+    char_cols <- vapply (x, is.character, FUN.VALUE = logical (1))
+    x [char_cols] <- lapply (x [char_cols], function (y) {
+        Encoding (y) <- "UTF-8"
+        y
+    })
+
+    return(x)
+}
diff --git a/codemeta.json b/codemeta.json
index 24d3334..b9c2242 100644
--- a/codemeta.json
+++ b/codemeta.json
@@ -11,13 +11,13 @@
   "codeRepository": "https://github.com/ropensci/osmdata/",
   "issueTracker": "https://github.com/ropensci/osmdata/issues",
   "license": "https://spdx.org/licenses/GPL-3.0",
-  "version": "0.2.5.018",
+  "version": "0.2.5.19",
   "programmingLanguage": {
     "@type": "ComputerLanguage",
     "name": "R",
     "url": "https://r-project.org"
   },
-  "runtimePlatform": "R version 4.3.1 (2023-06-16)",
+  "runtimePlatform": "R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14)",
   "provider": {
     "@id": "https://cran.r-project.org",
     "@type": "Organization",