diff --git a/include/wx/propgrid/propgrid.h b/include/wx/propgrid/propgrid.h
index e8300db5fd..59909651e6 100644
--- a/include/wx/propgrid/propgrid.h
+++ b/include/wx/propgrid/propgrid.h
@@ -113,7 +113,14 @@ public:
     int HasExtraStyle( int style ) const { return (m_extraStyle & style); }
 };
 
-extern WXDLLIMPEXP_DATA_PROPGRID(wxPGGlobalVarsClass*) wxPGGlobalVars;
+// Internal class providing access to the global wxPGGlobalVars instance.
+class WXDLLIMPEXP_PROPGRID wxPGGlobalVarsPtr
+{
+public:
+    wxPGGlobalVarsClass* operator->() const;
+};
+
+extern WXDLLIMPEXP_DATA_PROPGRID(wxPGGlobalVarsPtr) wxPGGlobalVars;
 
 #define wxPGVariant_EmptyString     (wxPGGlobalVars->m_vEmptyString)
 #define wxPGVariant_Zero            (wxPGGlobalVars->m_vZero)
diff --git a/src/propgrid/propgrid.cpp b/src/propgrid/propgrid.cpp
index 13d00e749c..f55c9c2b9d 100644
--- a/src/propgrid/propgrid.cpp
+++ b/src/propgrid/propgrid.cpp
@@ -138,6 +138,9 @@ const char wxPropertyGridNameStr[] = "wxPropertyGrid";
 // Statics in one class for easy destruction.
 // -----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+// This is the real global wxPGGlobalVarsClass object allocated on demand.
+static wxPGGlobalVarsClass* g_PGGlobalVars = nullptr;
+
 #include "wx/module.h"
 
 class wxPGGlobalVarsClassManager : public wxModule
@@ -145,8 +148,8 @@ class wxPGGlobalVarsClassManager : public wxModule
     wxDECLARE_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxPGGlobalVarsClassManager);
 public:
     wxPGGlobalVarsClassManager() = default;
-    virtual bool OnInit() override { wxPGGlobalVars = new wxPGGlobalVarsClass(); return true; }
-    virtual void OnExit() override { wxDELETE(wxPGGlobalVars); }
+    virtual bool OnInit() override { return true; }
+    virtual void OnExit() override { wxDELETE(g_PGGlobalVars); }
 };
 
 wxIMPLEMENT_DYNAMIC_CLASS(wxPGGlobalVarsClassManager, wxModule);
@@ -161,8 +164,19 @@ void wxPGInitResourceModule()
     wxModule::InitializeModules();
 }
 
-wxPGGlobalVarsClass* wxPGGlobalVars = nullptr;
+// This object is a proxy that allows us to only create wxPGGlobalVarsClass
+// object when it's really needed. Note that we need to use an object for this
+// instead of a function for compatibility reasons: a lot of existing code uses
+// wxPGGlobalVars directly.
+wxPGGlobalVarsPtr wxPGGlobalVars;
 
+wxPGGlobalVarsClass* wxPGGlobalVarsPtr::operator->() const
+{
+    if ( !g_PGGlobalVars )
+        g_PGGlobalVars = new wxPGGlobalVarsClass();
+
+    return g_PGGlobalVars;
+}
 
 wxPGGlobalVarsClass::wxPGGlobalVarsClass()
     // Prepare some shared variants