diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index bbb998e80..1c220d169 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ option(GTSAM_WITH_TBB                    "Use Intel Threaded Building Blocks (TB
 option(GTSAM_WITH_EIGEN_MKL              "Eigen will use Intel MKL if available" ON)
 option(GTSAM_WITH_EIGEN_MKL_OPENMP       "Eigen, when using Intel MKL, will also use OpenMP for multithreading if available" ON)
 option(GTSAM_THROW_CHEIRALITY_EXCEPTION "Throw exception when a triangulated point is behind a camera" ON)
-option(GTSAM_BUILD_PYTHON                "Build Python wrapper statically (increases build time)" OFF)
+option(GTSAM_BUILD_PYTHON                "Build Python wrapper statically (increases build time)" ON)
 
 # Options relating to MATLAB wrapper
 # TODO: Check for matlab mex binary before handling building of binaries