diff --git a/src/internal/libc.h b/src/internal/libc.h
index 51ee1860cd305793ed912dfc8933eef0aa7b0684..212f0e8bd8ff8263aad8821bc87420a965b0b0cd 100644
--- a/src/internal/libc.h
+++ b/src/internal/libc.h
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@ struct __libc {
 	volatile int ofl_lock[2];
 	size_t tls_size;
 	size_t page_size;
-	volatile int uselocale_cnt;
-	volatile int bytelocale_cnt_minus_1;
 	struct __locale_struct global_locale;
 };
 
diff --git a/src/internal/locale_impl.h b/src/internal/locale_impl.h
index 9142f0c278133b44e91c19ee1a1852cc056db52b..5aebbf68866a8241e0c6aa4c3b4498496c30d1cb 100644
--- a/src/internal/locale_impl.h
+++ b/src/internal/locale_impl.h
@@ -20,11 +20,9 @@ const char *__lctrans_cur(const char *);
 #define LCTRANS(msg, lc, loc) __lctrans(msg, (loc)->cat[(lc)-2])
 #define LCTRANS_CUR(msg) __lctrans_cur(msg)
 
-#define CURRENT_LOCALE \
-	(libc.uselocale_cnt ? __pthread_self()->locale : &libc.global_locale)
+#define CURRENT_LOCALE (__pthread_self()->locale)
 
-#define CURRENT_UTF8 \
-	(libc.bytelocale_cnt_minus_1<0 || __pthread_self()->locale->ctype_utf8)
+#define CURRENT_UTF8 (__pthread_self()->locale->ctype_utf8)
 
 #undef MB_CUR_MAX
 #define MB_CUR_MAX (CURRENT_UTF8 ? 4 : 1)
diff --git a/src/locale/setlocale.c b/src/locale/setlocale.c
index 8ea389a3c118d570cbc3a0eb54d03ba52df39bf2..d797f43fe8855c3393fb41b965eaefabb578542c 100644
--- a/src/locale/setlocale.c
+++ b/src/locale/setlocale.c
@@ -55,12 +55,7 @@ char *setlocale(int cat, const char *name)
 		return buf;
 	}
 
-	if (name) {
-		int adj = libc.global_locale.ctype_utf8;
-		__setlocalecat(&libc.global_locale, cat, name);
-		adj -= libc.global_locale.ctype_utf8;
-		if (adj) a_fetch_add(&libc.bytelocale_cnt_minus_1, adj);
-	}
+	if (name) __setlocalecat(&libc.global_locale, cat, name);
 
 	switch (cat) {
 	case LC_CTYPE:
diff --git a/src/locale/uselocale.c b/src/locale/uselocale.c
index 510679575944dd1cfe04589d3e2b1b9f547c60ba..b70a0c185fb616a85b566e5ca82c5c6bf8c44207 100644
--- a/src/locale/uselocale.c
+++ b/src/locale/uselocale.c
@@ -10,15 +10,7 @@ locale_t __uselocale(locale_t new)
 
 	if (new == LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE) new = global;
 
-	if (new && new != old) {
-		int adj = 0;
-		if (new == global) a_dec(&libc.uselocale_cnt);
-		else if (!new->ctype_utf8) adj++;
-		if (old == global) a_inc(&libc.uselocale_cnt);
-		else if (!old->ctype_utf8) adj--;
-		a_fetch_add(&libc.bytelocale_cnt_minus_1, adj);
-		self->locale = new;
-	}
+	self->locale = new;
 
 	return old == global ? LC_GLOBAL_LOCALE : old;
 }
diff --git a/src/thread/pthread_create.c b/src/thread/pthread_create.c
index 4eb8b8881d2871ed27153a506594924a9a8f90bb..de72818d778a30ae7be178096ed52e50ac3451e5 100644
--- a/src/thread/pthread_create.c
+++ b/src/thread/pthread_create.c
@@ -67,12 +67,6 @@ _Noreturn void __pthread_exit(void *result)
 		exit(0);
 	}
 
-	if (self->locale != &libc.global_locale) {
-		a_dec(&libc.uselocale_cnt);
-		if (self->locale->ctype_utf8)
-			a_dec(&libc.bytelocale_cnt_minus_1);
-	}
-
 	/* Process robust list in userspace to handle non-pshared mutexes
 	 * and the detached thread case where the robust list head will
 	 * be invalid when the kernel would process it. */