diff --git a/config/app.example.php b/config/app.example.php
index 3fc952b0..d5b367d9 100644
--- a/config/app.example.php
+++ b/config/app.example.php
@@ -9,5 +9,6 @@
         'unsigned_primary_keys' => null, // Default false
         'unsigned_ints' => null, // Default false, make sure this is aligned with the above config
         'column_null_default' => null, // Default false
+        'default_collation' => null, // Default null (uses database collation). Set to e.g. 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci' to override.
     ],
 ];
diff --git a/docs/en/writing-migrations.rst b/docs/en/writing-migrations.rst
index 161c803d..4272fbc1 100644
--- a/docs/en/writing-migrations.rst
+++ b/docs/en/writing-migrations.rst
@@ -546,10 +546,9 @@ In addition, the MySQL adapter supports following options:
 Option     Platform         Description
 ========== ================ ===========
 comment    MySQL, Postgres  set a text comment on the table
-collation  MySQL, SqlServer the default collation for a table if different than the database.
+collation  MySQL, SqlServer set the table collation *(defaults to database collation)*
 row_format MySQL            set the table row format
 engine     MySQL            define table engine *(defaults to ``InnoDB``)*
-collation  MySQL            define table collation *(defaults to ``utf8mb4_unicode_ci``)*
 signed     MySQL            whether the primary key is ``signed``  *(defaults to ``false``)*
 limit      MySQL            set the maximum length for the primary key
 ========== ================ ===========
diff --git a/src/Db/Adapter/MysqlAdapter.php b/src/Db/Adapter/MysqlAdapter.php
index 0873581a..b1d8a182 100644
--- a/src/Db/Adapter/MysqlAdapter.php
+++ b/src/Db/Adapter/MysqlAdapter.php
@@ -251,9 +251,13 @@ public function createTable(TableMetadata $table, array $columns = [], array $in
         // This method is based on the MySQL docs here: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/create-index.html
         $defaultOptions = [
             'engine' => 'InnoDB',
-            'collation' => 'utf8mb4_unicode_ci',
         ];
 
+        $collation = Configure::read('Migrations.default_collation');
+        if ($collation) {
+            $defaultOptions['collation'] = $collation;
+        }
+
         $options = array_merge(
             $defaultOptions,
             array_intersect_key($this->getOptions(), $defaultOptions),