diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 6c54a2175..b9bd18467 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -121,6 +121,10 @@ target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_LIBRARY_TARGET_NAME}
     TINYXML2::TINYXML2
     using_parser_urdf)
 
+if (NOT BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
+  target_compile_definitions(${PROJECT_LIBRARY_TARGET_NAME} PUBLIC IGNITION_SDFORMAT_STATIC_DEFINE)
+endif()
+
 if (WIN32)
   target_compile_definitions(${PROJECT_LIBRARY_TARGET_NAME} PRIVATE URDFDOM_STATIC)
 endif()