diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index d27714f3f4231..bbd4f44b6517e 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -168,6 +168,10 @@ This section lists changes that do not have deprecation warnings.
     way as `^(A::Integer, p::Integer)`. This means, for instance, that `[1 1; 0 1]^big(1)`
     will return a `Matrix{BigInt}` instead of a `Matrix{Int}` ([#23366]).
 
+  * The element type of the input is now preserved in `unique`. Previously the element type
+    of the output was shrunk to fit the union of the type of each element in the input.
+    ([#22696])
+
 Library improvements
 --------------------
 
@@ -1204,6 +1208,7 @@ Command-line option changes
 [#22588]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22588
 [#22605]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22605
 [#22666]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22666
+[#22696]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22696
 [#22703]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22703
 [#22712]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22712
 [#22718]: https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/22718
diff --git a/base/set.jl b/base/set.jl
index f5ced5e45d779..86f1e93b889b4 100644
--- a/base/set.jl
+++ b/base/set.jl
@@ -240,7 +240,8 @@ const ⊆ = issubset
 
 Return an array containing only the unique elements of collection `itr`,
 as determined by [`isequal`](@ref), in the order that the first of each
-set of equivalent elements originally appears.
+set of equivalent elements originally appears. The element type of the
+input is preserved.
 
 # Examples
 ```jldoctest
@@ -249,6 +250,11 @@ julia> unique([1, 2, 6, 2])
  1
  2
  6
+
+julia> unique(Real[1, 1.0, 2])
+2-element Array{Real,1}:
+ 1
+ 2
 ```
 """
 function unique(itr)
@@ -260,7 +266,7 @@ function unique(itr)
         return out
     end
     x, i = next(itr, i)
-    if !isleaftype(T)
+    if !isleaftype(T) && iteratoreltype(itr) == EltypeUnknown()
         S = typeof(x)
         return _unique_from(itr, S[x], Set{S}((x,)), i)
     end
diff --git a/test/core.jl b/test/core.jl
index adf0778660968..08c3986562915 100644
--- a/test/core.jl
+++ b/test/core.jl
@@ -5382,7 +5382,8 @@ for U in unboxedunions
             # deleteat!
             F = Base.uniontypes(U)[2]
             A = U[rand(F(1):F(len)) for i = 1:len]
-            deleteat!(A, map(Int, sort!(unique(A[1:4]))))
+            # The 2-arg `unique` method works around #22688
+            deleteat!(A, map(Int, sort!(unique(identity, A[1:4]))))
             A = U[initvalue2(F2) for i = 1:len]
             deleteat!(A, 1:2)
             @test length(A) == len - 2
diff --git a/test/sets.jl b/test/sets.jl
index 3efb3804be7bf..7041e475295b1 100644
--- a/test/sets.jl
+++ b/test/sets.jl
@@ -233,6 +233,8 @@ u = unique([1,1,2])
 # issue 20105
 @test @inferred(unique(x for x in 1:1)) == [1]
 @test unique(x for x in Any[1,1.0])::Vector{Real} == [1]
+@test unique(x for x in Real[1,1.0])::Vector{Real} == [1]
+@test unique(Integer[1,1,2])::Vector{Integer} == [1,2]
 
 # unique!
 @testset "unique!" begin