diff --git a/doc/source/io.rst b/doc/source/io.rst
index 7ea476514e88d..69377fad15270 100644
--- a/doc/source/io.rst
+++ b/doc/source/io.rst
@@ -225,9 +225,9 @@ NA and Missing Data Handling
 
 na_values : scalar, str, list-like, or dict, default ``None``
   Additional strings to recognize as NA/NaN. If dict passed, specific per-column
-  NA values. By default the following values are interpreted as NaN:
-  ``'-1.#IND', '1.#QNAN', '1.#IND', '-1.#QNAN', '#N/A N/A', '#N/A', 'N/A', 'n/a', 'NA',
-  '#NA', 'NULL', 'null', 'NaN', '-NaN', 'nan', '-nan', ''``.
+  NA values. See :ref:`na values const <io.navaluesconst>` below
+  for a list of the values interpreted as NaN by default.
+
 keep_default_na : boolean, default ``True``
   If na_values are specified and keep_default_na is ``False`` the default NaN
   values are overridden, otherwise they're appended to.
@@ -1030,10 +1030,11 @@ the corresponding equivalent values will also imply a missing value (in this cas
 ``[5.0,5]`` are recognized as ``NaN``.
 
 To completely override the default values that are recognized as missing, specify ``keep_default_na=False``.
-The default ``NaN`` recognized values are ``['-1.#IND', '1.#QNAN', '1.#IND', '-1.#QNAN', '#N/A','N/A', 'NA',
-'#NA', 'NULL', 'NaN', '-NaN', 'nan', '-nan']``. Although a 0-length string
-``''`` is not included in the default ``NaN`` values list, it is still treated
-as a missing value.
+
+.. _io.navaluesconst:
+
+The default ``NaN`` recognized values are ``['-1.#IND', '1.#QNAN', '1.#IND', '-1.#QNAN', '#N/A N/A', '#N/A', 'N/A',
+'n/a', 'NA', '#NA', 'NULL', 'null', 'NaN', '-NaN', 'nan', '-nan', '']``.
 
 .. code-block:: python
 
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx b/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
index 2549c8545908d..7375a2197c6b7 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ from pandas.core.algorithms import take_1d
 from pandas.core.dtypes.concat import union_categoricals
 from pandas import Index
 
+import pandas.io.common as com
+
 import time
 import os
 
@@ -273,13 +275,6 @@ cdef extern from "parser/io.h":
 
 DEFAULT_CHUNKSIZE = 256 * 1024
 
-# common NA values
-# no longer excluding inf representations
-# '1.#INF','-1.#INF', '1.#INF000000',
-_NA_VALUES = [b'-1.#IND', b'1.#QNAN', b'1.#IND', b'-1.#QNAN',
-              b'#N/A N/A', b'n/a', b'NA', b'#NA', b'NULL', b'null', b'NaN',
-              b'nan', b'']
-
 
 cdef class TextReader:
     """
@@ -1380,6 +1375,12 @@ cdef asbytes(object o):
         return str(o)
 
 
+# common NA values
+# no longer excluding inf representations
+# '1.#INF','-1.#INF', '1.#INF000000',
+_NA_VALUES = _ensure_encoded(list(com._NA_VALUES))
+
+
 def _is_file_like(obj):
     if PY3:
         import io
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/parser/na_values.py b/pandas/tests/io/parser/na_values.py
index 170f9d428c9cc..c6d1cc79b82d7 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/parser/na_values.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/parser/na_values.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 import numpy as np
 from numpy import nan
 
-import pandas.io.parsers as parsers
+import pandas.io.common as com
 import pandas.util.testing as tm
 
 from pandas import DataFrame, Index, MultiIndex
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ def test_default_na_values(self):
         _NA_VALUES = set(['-1.#IND', '1.#QNAN', '1.#IND', '-1.#QNAN',
                           '#N/A', 'N/A', 'n/a', 'NA', '#NA', 'NULL', 'null',
                           'NaN', 'nan', '-NaN', '-nan', '#N/A N/A', ''])
-        assert _NA_VALUES == parsers._NA_VALUES
+        assert _NA_VALUES == com._NA_VALUES
         nv = len(_NA_VALUES)
 
         def f(i, v):