diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 8801f85..13bec43 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ options. The project adheres to semantic versioning.
 ### Changed
 
 * Allow integers to have leading zeroes.
+* Build the tests by default.
 
 ### Added
 
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b9fbda3..440490b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ project(cxxopts VERSION "${VERSION}")
 enable_testing()
 
 option(CXXOPTS_BUILD_EXAMPLES "Set to ON to build examples" ON)
-option(CXXOPTS_BUILD_TESTS "Set to ON to build tests" OFF)
+option(CXXOPTS_BUILD_TESTS "Set to ON to build tests" ON)
 
 # request c++11 without gnu extension for the whole project and enable more warnings
 if (CXXOPTS_CXX_STANDARD)