diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
index dfc292872a9..ea1909c08dc 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/libpq.sgml
@@ -1745,9 +1745,9 @@ postgresql://%2Fvar%2Flib%2Fpostgresql/dbname
         <literal>TLSv1.1</literal>, <literal>TLSv1.2</literal> and
         <literal>TLSv1.3</literal>. The supported protocols depend on the
         version of <productname>OpenSSL</productname> used, older versions
-        not supporting the most modern protocol versions. If not set, this
-        parameter is ignored and the connection will use the minimum bound
-        defined by the backend.
+        not supporting the most modern protocol versions. If not specified,
+        the default is <literal>TLSv1.2</literal>, which satisfies industry
+        best practices as of this writing.
        </para>
       </listitem>
      </varlistentry>
diff --git a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
index ae4a32e45b2..fcd2457116b 100644
--- a/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
+++ b/src/interfaces/libpq/fe-connect.c
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ static const internalPQconninfoOption PQconninfoOptions[] = {
 		"Require-Peer", "", 10,
 	offsetof(struct pg_conn, requirepeer)},
 
-	{"ssl_min_protocol_version", "PGSSLMINPROTOCOLVERSION", NULL, NULL,
+	{"ssl_min_protocol_version", "PGSSLMINPROTOCOLVERSION", "TLSv1.2", NULL,
 		"SSL-Minimum-Protocol-Version", "", 8,	/* sizeof("TLSv1.x") == 8 */
 	offsetof(struct pg_conn, ssl_min_protocol_version)},