diff --git a/sqlx-core/Cargo.toml b/sqlx-core/Cargo.toml
index c2591fdb..3215cb32 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/sqlx-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ all-type = ["bigdecimal", "json", "time", "chrono", "ipnetwork", "uuid"]
 # we need a feature which activates `num-bigint` as well because
 # `bigdecimal` uses types from it but does not reexport (tsk tsk)
 bigdecimal = ["bigdecimal_", "num-bigint"]
-postgres = [ "md-5", "sha2", "base64", "sha-1", "rand", "hmac", "futures-channel/sink", "futures-util/sink" ]
+postgres = [ "md-5", "sha2", "base64", "sha-1", "rand", "hmac", "futures-channel/sink", "futures-util/sink", "tokio/uds" ]
 json = ["serde", "serde_json"]
 mysql = [ "sha-1", "sha2", "generic-array", "num-bigint", "base64", "digest", "rand" ]
 sqlite = [ "libsqlite3-sys" ]
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/io/tls.rs b/sqlx-core/src/io/tls.rs
index a81c4f7d..9e0e032e 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/io/tls.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/io/tls.rs
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@ pub struct MaybeTlsStream {
 
 enum Inner {
     NotTls(TcpStream),
+    #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+    UnixStream(crate::runtime::UnixStream),
     #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
     Tls(async_native_tls::TlsStream<TcpStream>),
     #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
@@ -20,6 +22,13 @@ enum Inner {
 }
 
 impl MaybeTlsStream {
+    #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+    pub async fn connect_uds<S: AsRef<std::ffi::OsStr>>(p: S) -> crate::Result<Self> {
+        let conn = crate::runtime::UnixStream::connect(p.as_ref()).await?;
+        Ok(Self {
+            inner: Inner::UnixStream(conn),
+        })
+    }
     pub async fn connect(host: &str, port: u16) -> crate::Result<Self> {
         let conn = TcpStream::connect((host, port)).await?;
         Ok(Self {
@@ -31,6 +40,8 @@ impl MaybeTlsStream {
     pub fn is_tls(&self) -> bool {
         match self.inner {
             Inner::NotTls(_) => false,
+            #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+            Inner::UnixStream(_) => false,
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
             Inner::Tls(_) => true,
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
@@ -47,6 +58,10 @@ impl MaybeTlsStream {
     ) -> crate::Result<()> {
         let conn = match std::mem::replace(&mut self.inner, Upgrading) {
             NotTls(conn) => conn,
+            #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+            UnixStream(_) => {
+                return Err(tls_err!("TLS is not supported with unix domain sockets").into())
+            }
             Tls(_) => return Err(tls_err!("connection already upgraded").into()),
             Upgrading => return Err(tls_err!("connection already failed to upgrade").into()),
         };
@@ -59,6 +74,8 @@ impl MaybeTlsStream {
     pub fn shutdown(&self, how: Shutdown) -> io::Result<()> {
         match self.inner {
             NotTls(ref conn) => conn.shutdown(how),
+            #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+            UnixStream(ref conn) => conn.shutdown(how),
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
             Tls(ref conn) => conn.get_ref().shutdown(how),
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
@@ -72,6 +89,8 @@ macro_rules! forward_pin (
     ($self:ident.$method:ident($($arg:ident),*)) => (
         match &mut $self.inner {
             NotTls(ref mut conn) => Pin::new(conn).$method($($arg),*),
+            #[cfg(all(feature = "postgres", unix))]
+            UnixStream(ref mut conn) => Pin::new(conn).$method($($arg),*),
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
             Tls(ref mut conn) => Pin::new(conn).$method($($arg),*),
             #[cfg(feature = "tls")]
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/postgres/stream.rs b/sqlx-core/src/postgres/stream.rs
index 6beb5ee2..52ca2079 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/postgres/stream.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/postgres/stream.rs
@@ -23,9 +23,15 @@ pub struct PgStream {
 
 impl PgStream {
     pub(super) async fn new(url: &Url) -> crate::Result<Self> {
-        let host = url.host().unwrap_or("localhost");
+        let host = url.host();
         let port = url.port(5432);
-        let stream = MaybeTlsStream::connect(host, port).await?;
+        #[cfg(unix)]
+        let stream = match host {
+            Some(host) => MaybeTlsStream::connect(host, port).await?,
+            None => MaybeTlsStream::connect_uds(format!("/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.{}", port)).await?,
+        };
+        #[cfg(not(unix))]
+        let stream = MaybeTlsStream::connect(host.unwrap_or("localhost"), port).await?;
 
         Ok(Self {
             notifications: None,
diff --git a/sqlx-core/src/runtime.rs b/sqlx-core/src/runtime.rs
index e76becc8..49e9c940 100644
--- a/sqlx-core/src/runtime.rs
+++ b/sqlx-core/src/runtime.rs
@@ -17,6 +17,9 @@ pub(crate) use async_std::{
     task::spawn,
 };
 
+#[cfg(all(feature = "runtime-async-std", feature = "postgres", unix))]
+pub(crate) use async_std::os::unix::net::UnixStream;
+
 #[cfg(feature = "runtime-tokio")]
 pub(crate) use tokio::{
     fs,
@@ -26,3 +29,6 @@ pub(crate) use tokio::{
     time::delay_for as sleep,
     time::timeout,
 };
+
+#[cfg(all(feature = "runtime-tokio", feature = "postgres", unix))]
+pub(crate) use tokio::net::UnixStream;