diff --git a/.github/workflows/docker-gdal.yml b/.github/workflows/docker-gdal.yml
index 189954a0..19fe609e 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/docker-gdal.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/docker-gdal.yml
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ jobs:
           - "ghcr.io/osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.8.5" # python 3.10.12
           - "ghcr.io/osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.7.3" # python 3.10.12
           - "ghcr.io/osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.6.4" # python 3.10.6
-          - "osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.5.3" # python 3.8.10
-          - "osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.4.3" # python 3.8.10
+          - "osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.5.3" # python 3.9.20 (installed manually)
+          - "osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.4.3" # python 3.9.20 (installed manually)
 
     container:
       image: ${{ matrix.container }}
@@ -36,6 +36,15 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           apt-get update && apt-get install -y build-essential git python3-dev
 
+      - name: Install Python 
+        # the GDAL 3.4 and 3.5 images do have Python 3.8 installed, so have to
+        # install a more recent Python version manually 
+        if: matrix.container == 'osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.5.3' || matrix.container == 'osgeo/gdal:ubuntu-small-3.4.3'
+        run: |
+          apt-get update && apt-get install -y software-properties-common
+          add-apt-repository -y ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
+          apt-get update && apt-get install -y python3.9-dev
+
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
 
       - name: Create virtual environment
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 238b291d..f1ab3dec 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ jobs:
             "macos-12",
             "macos-latest",
           ]
-        python-version: ["3.8", "3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]
+        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10", "3.11", "3.12", "3.13"]
         include:
           - os: "ubuntu-latest"
             artifact: pyogrio-wheel-linux-manylinux2014_x86_64
diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 242cf518..02eb6087 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
     This also leads to `pyproj` becoming an optional dependency; you will need
     to install `pyproj` in order to support spatial reference systems (#452).
 -   The GDAL library included in the wheels is updated from 3.8.5 to GDAL 3.9.2 (#466).
+-   pyogrio now requires a minimum version of Python >= 3.9 (#473).
+-   Wheels are now available for Python 3.13.
 
 ## 0.9.0 (2024-06-17)
 
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 0b02463d..8b9f8868 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ substantial change. Please see [CHANGES](CHANGES.md).
 
 ## Requirements
 
-Supports Python 3.8 - 3.11 and GDAL 3.4.x - 3.8.x.
+Supports Python 3.9 - 3.13 and GDAL 3.4.x - 3.9.x.
 
 Reading to GeoDataFrames requires `geopandas>=0.12` with `shapely>=2`.
 
diff --git a/docs/source/install.md b/docs/source/install.md
index 5419a36d..94513d11 100644
--- a/docs/source/install.md
+++ b/docs/source/install.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 ## Requirements
 
-Supports Python 3.8 - 3.11 and GDAL 3.4.x - 3.8.x
+Supports Python 3.9 - 3.13 and GDAL 3.4.x - 3.9.x
 
 Reading to GeoDataFrames requires `geopandas>=0.12` with `shapely>=2`.
 
diff --git a/pyogrio/_env.py b/pyogrio/_env.py
index ee15883c..76e8e4b6 100644
--- a/pyogrio/_env.py
+++ b/pyogrio/_env.py
@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@
 import logging
 import os
 import platform
-import sys
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -28,7 +27,7 @@
 
 gdal_dll_dir = None
 
-if platform.system() == "Windows" and sys.version_info >= (3, 8):
+if platform.system() == "Windows":
     # if loading of extension modules fails, search for gdal dll directory
     try:
         import pyogrio._io  # noqa: F401
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index fb09a0f0..26617a79 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ classifiers = [
     "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
     "Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: GIS",
 ]
-requires-python = ">=3.8"
+requires-python = ">=3.9"
 dependencies = ["certifi", "numpy", "packaging"]
 
 [project.optional-dependencies]
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 25699c09..4acb7677 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -20,12 +20,12 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-MIN_PYTHON_VERSION = (3, 8, 0)
+MIN_PYTHON_VERSION = (3, 9, 0)
 MIN_GDAL_VERSION = (2, 4, 0)
 
 
 if sys.version_info < MIN_PYTHON_VERSION:
-    raise RuntimeError("Python >= 3.8 is required")
+    raise RuntimeError("Python >= 3.9 is required")
 
 
 def copy_data_tree(datadir, destdir):