diff --git a/Misc/NEWS b/Misc/NEWS
index fdbff7058a4..940aa69d0c6 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS
+++ b/Misc/NEWS
@@ -352,6 +352,8 @@ Tests
 Build
 -----
 
+- Update SQLite to 3.8.1 on Windows.
+
 - Issue #16632: Enable DEP and ASLR on Windows.
 
 - Issue #17791: Drop PREFIX and EXEC_PREFIX definitions from PC/pyconfig.h
diff --git a/PC/VS9.0/pyproject.vsprops b/PC/VS9.0/pyproject.vsprops
index c5793edc3bc..00d34913d99 100644
--- a/PC/VS9.0/pyproject.vsprops
+++ b/PC/VS9.0/pyproject.vsprops
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@
 	/>
 	<UserMacro
 		Name="sqlite3Dir"
-		Value="$(externalsDir)\sqlite-3.7.12"
+		Value="$(externalsDir)\sqlite-3.8.1"
 	/>
 	<UserMacro
 		Name="bz2Dir"
diff --git a/PCbuild/pyproject.props b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
index 7c8e053a85d..ebce448990f 100644
--- a/PCbuild/pyproject.props
+++ b/PCbuild/pyproject.props
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
     <PythonExe>$(OutDir)python$(PyDebugExt).exe</PythonExe>
     <KillPythonExe>$(OutDir)kill_python$(PyDebugExt).exe</KillPythonExe>
     <externalsDir>..\..</externalsDir>
-    <sqlite3Dir>$(externalsDir)\sqlite-3.7.12</sqlite3Dir>
+    <sqlite3Dir>$(externalsDir)\sqlite-3.8.1</sqlite3Dir>
     <bz2Dir>$(externalsDir)\bzip2-1.0.6</bz2Dir>
     <lzmaDir>$(externalsDir)\xz-5.0.3</lzmaDir>
     <opensslDir>$(externalsDir)\openssl-1.0.1e</opensslDir>
diff --git a/PCbuild/readme.txt b/PCbuild/readme.txt
index 3012971d01b..e7e09624f2f 100644
--- a/PCbuild/readme.txt
+++ b/PCbuild/readme.txt
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ _ssl
     The ssl sub-project does not have the ability to clean the OpenSSL
     build; if you need to rebuild, you'll have to clean it by hand.
 _sqlite3
-    Wraps SQLite 3.7.12, which is itself built by sqlite3.vcxproj
+    Wraps SQLite 3.8.1, which is itself built by sqlite3.vcxproj
     Homepage:
         http://www.sqlite.org/
 _tkinter
diff --git a/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat b/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
index c6278b2673f..0e76556cf72 100644
--- a/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
+++ b/Tools/buildbot/external-common.bat
@@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ if not exist tcl-8.5.11.0 (
 if not exist tk-8.5.11.0 svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/tk-8.5.11.0
 
 @rem sqlite3
-if not exist sqlite-3.7.12 (
-  rd /s/q sqlite-source-3.7.4
-  svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/sqlite-3.7.12
+if not exist sqlite-3.8.1 (
+  rd /s/q sqlite-source-3.7.12
+  svn export http://svn.python.org/projects/external/sqlite-3.8.1
 )
 
 @rem lzma