diff --git a/changelog_entry.yaml b/changelog_entry.yaml
index e69de29b..58659269 100644
--- a/changelog_entry.yaml
+++ b/changelog_entry.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+- bump: patch
+  changes:
+    changed:
+      - Bumped policyengine-core minimum version to 3.23.5 for pandas 3.0 compatibility
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8cd00d38..85b3ae9e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
         "policyengine-il==0.1.0",
         "policyengine_uk==2.39.0",
         "policyengine_us==1.514.0",
-        "policyengine_core>=3.16.6",
+        "policyengine_core>=3.23.5",
         "policyengine>=0.7.0",
         "pydantic",
         "pymysql",
diff --git a/tests/python/test_pandas3_compatibility.py b/tests/python/test_pandas3_compatibility.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..98481aa1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/python/test_pandas3_compatibility.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+"""Test pandas 3.0 compatibility with enum encoding."""
+
+import pandas as pd
+from policyengine_core.enums import Enum
+
+
+class SampleEnum(Enum):
+    VALUE_A = "value_a"
+    VALUE_B = "value_b"
+
+
+def test_enum_encode_with_pandas_series():
+    """Test that Enum.encode works with pandas Series."""
+    enum_items = [SampleEnum.VALUE_A, SampleEnum.VALUE_B, SampleEnum.VALUE_A]
+    series = pd.Series(enum_items)
+
+    encoded = SampleEnum.encode(series)
+
+    assert len(encoded) == 3
+    assert list(encoded) == [0, 1, 0]