diff --git a/sklearn/preprocessing/_encoders.py b/sklearn/preprocessing/_encoders.py
index 1962f571cfbaa..9c23b8a101926 100644
--- a/sklearn/preprocessing/_encoders.py
+++ b/sklearn/preprocessing/_encoders.py
@@ -739,7 +739,7 @@ def __init__(
         drop=None,
         sparse="deprecated",
         sparse_output=True,
-        dtype=np.float64,
+        dtype=np.uint8,
         handle_unknown="error",
         min_frequency=None,
         max_categories=None,