diff --git a/Doc/library/locale.rst b/Doc/library/locale.rst
index 0bd7957c348..1bbe664954c 100644
--- a/Doc/library/locale.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/locale.rst
@@ -158,8 +158,7 @@ The :mod:`locale` module defines the following exception and functions:
 
 .. function:: nl_langinfo(option)
 
-   Return some locale-specific information as a string (or a tuple for
-   ``ALT_DIGITS``).  This function is not
+   Return some locale-specific information as a string.  This function is not
    available on all systems, and the set of possible options might also vary
    across platforms.  The possible argument values are numbers, for which
    symbolic constants are available in the locale module.
@@ -312,7 +311,9 @@ The :mod:`locale` module defines the following exception and functions:
 
    .. data:: ALT_DIGITS
 
-      Get a tuple of up to 100 strings used to represent the values 0 to 99.
+      Get a string consisting of up to 100 semicolon-separated symbols used
+      to represent the values 0 to 99 in a locale-specific way.
+      In most locales this is an empty string.
 
 
 .. function:: getdefaultlocale([envvars])
diff --git a/Lib/test/test__locale.py b/Lib/test/test__locale.py
index 5041def7216..a680e6edb63 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test__locale.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test__locale.py
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ candidate_locales = ['es_UY', 'fr_FR', 'fi_FI', 'es_CO', 'pt_PT', 'it_IT',
     'bs_BA', 'fr_LU', 'kl_GL', 'fa_IR', 'de_BE', 'sv_SE', 'it_CH', 'uk_UA',
     'eu_ES', 'vi_VN', 'af_ZA', 'nb_NO', 'en_DK', 'tg_TJ', 'ps_AF', 'en_US',
     'fr_FR.ISO8859-1', 'fr_FR.UTF-8', 'fr_FR.ISO8859-15@euro',
-    'ru_RU.KOI8-R', 'ko_KR.eucKR']
+    'ru_RU.KOI8-R', 'ko_KR.eucKR',
+    'ja_JP.UTF-8', 'lzh_TW.UTF-8', 'my_MM.UTF-8', 'or_IN.UTF-8', 'shn_MM.UTF-8',
+    'ar_AE.UTF-8', 'bn_IN.UTF-8', 'mr_IN.UTF-8', 'th_TH.TIS620',
+]
 
 def setUpModule():
     global candidate_locales
@@ -78,11 +81,13 @@ known_alt_digits = {
     'C': (0, {}),
     'en_US': (0, {}),
     'fa_IR': (100, {0: '\u06f0\u06f0', 10: '\u06f1\u06f0', 99: '\u06f9\u06f9'}),
-    'ja_JP': (100, {0: '\u3007', 10: '\u5341', 99: '\u4e5d\u5341\u4e5d'}),
+    'ja_JP': (100, {1: '\u4e00', 10: '\u5341', 99: '\u4e5d\u5341\u4e5d'}),
     'lzh_TW': (32, {0: '\u3007', 10: '\u5341', 31: '\u5345\u4e00'}),
     'my_MM': (100, {0: '\u1040\u1040', 10: '\u1041\u1040', 99: '\u1049\u1049'}),
     'or_IN': (100, {0: '\u0b66', 10: '\u0b67\u0b66', 99: '\u0b6f\u0b6f'}),
     'shn_MM': (100, {0: '\u1090\u1090', 10: '\u1091\u1090', 99: '\u1099\u1099'}),
+    'ar_AE': (100, {0: '\u0660', 10: '\u0661\u0660', 99: '\u0669\u0669'}),
+    'bn_IN': (100, {0: '\u09e6', 10: '\u09e7\u09e6', 99: '\u09ef\u09ef'}),
 }
 
 if sys.platform == 'win32':
@@ -196,7 +201,7 @@ class _LocaleTests(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_alt_digits_nl_langinfo(self):
         # Test nl_langinfo(ALT_DIGITS)
         tested = False
-        for loc, (count, samples) in known_alt_digits.items():
+        for loc in candidate_locales:
             with self.subTest(locale=loc):
                 try:
                     setlocale(LC_TIME, loc)
@@ -204,14 +209,21 @@ class _LocaleTests(unittest.TestCase):
                 except Error:
                     self.skipTest(f'no locale {loc!r}')
                     continue
+
                 with self.subTest(locale=loc):
                     alt_digits = nl_langinfo(locale.ALT_DIGITS)
-                    self.assertIsInstance(alt_digits, tuple)
-                    if count and not alt_digits and support.is_apple:
-                        self.skipTest(f'ALT_DIGITS is not set for locale {loc!r} on Apple platforms')
-                    self.assertEqual(len(alt_digits), count)
-                    for i in samples:
-                        self.assertEqual(alt_digits[i], samples[i])
+                    self.assertIsInstance(alt_digits, str)
+                    alt_digits = alt_digits.split(';') if alt_digits else []
+                    if alt_digits:
+                        self.assertGreaterEqual(len(alt_digits), 10, alt_digits)
+                    loc1 = loc.split('.', 1)[0]
+                    if loc1 in known_alt_digits:
+                        count, samples = known_alt_digits[loc1]
+                        if count and not alt_digits:
+                            self.skipTest(f'ALT_DIGITS is not set for locale {loc!r} on this platform')
+                        self.assertEqual(len(alt_digits), count, alt_digits)
+                        for i in samples:
+                            self.assertEqual(alt_digits[i], samples[i])
                     tested = True
         if not tested:
             self.skipTest('no suitable locales')
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-08-12-09-09.gh-issue-124969._VBQLq.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-08-12-09-09.gh-issue-124969._VBQLq.rst
index b5082b90721..7959ce2d1e9 100644
--- a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-08-12-09-09.gh-issue-124969._VBQLq.rst
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2024-10-08-12-09-09.gh-issue-124969._VBQLq.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
-Fix ``locale.nl_langinfo(locale.ALT_DIGITS)``. Now it returns a tuple of up
-to 100 strings (an empty tuple on most locales). Previously it returned the
-first item of that tuple or an empty string.
+Fix ``locale.nl_langinfo(locale.ALT_DIGITS)`` on platforms with glibc.
+Now it returns a string consisting of up to 100 semicolon-separated symbols
+(an empty string in most locales) on all Posix platforms.
+Previously it only returned the first symbol or an empty string.
diff --git a/Modules/_localemodule.c b/Modules/_localemodule.c
index 458365154d4..f2ba5606dc0 100644
--- a/Modules/_localemodule.c
+++ b/Modules/_localemodule.c
@@ -609,28 +609,36 @@ _locale_nl_langinfo_impl(PyObject *module, int item)
             const char *result = nl_langinfo(item);
             result = result != NULL ? result : "";
             PyObject *pyresult;
+#ifdef __GLIBC__
 #ifdef ALT_DIGITS
-            if (item == ALT_DIGITS) {
-                /* The result is a sequence of up to 100 NUL-separated strings. */
-                const char *s = result;
+            if (item == ALT_DIGITS && *result) {
+                /* According to the POSIX specification the result must be
+                 * a sequence of up to 100 semicolon-separated strings.
+                 * But in Glibc they are NUL-separated. */
+                Py_ssize_t i = 0;
                 int count = 0;
-                for (; count < 100 && *s; count++) {
-                    s += strlen(s) + 1;
+                for (; count < 100 && result[i]; count++) {
+                    i += strlen(result + i) + 1;
                 }
-                pyresult = PyTuple_New(count);
-                if (pyresult != NULL) {
-                    for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) {
-                        PyObject *unicode = PyUnicode_DecodeLocale(result, NULL);
-                        if (unicode == NULL) {
-                            Py_CLEAR(pyresult);
-                            break;
-                        }
-                        PyTuple_SET_ITEM(pyresult, i, unicode);
-                        result += strlen(result) + 1;
+                char *buf = PyMem_Malloc(i);
+                if (buf == NULL) {
+                    PyErr_NoMemory();
+                    pyresult = NULL;
+                }
+                else {
+                    memcpy(buf, result, i);
+                    /* Replace all NULs with semicolons. */
+                    i = 0;
+                    while (--count) {
+                        i += strlen(buf + i);
+                        buf[i++] = ';';
                     }
+                    pyresult = PyUnicode_DecodeLocale(buf, NULL);
+                    PyMem_Free(buf);
                 }
             }
             else
+#endif
 #endif
             {
                 pyresult = PyUnicode_DecodeLocale(result, NULL);