diff --git a/django/core/servers/basehttp.py b/django/core/servers/basehttp.py
index 8b03e9bb4d..f93b3a3143 100644
--- a/django/core/servers/basehttp.py
+++ b/django/core/servers/basehttp.py
@@ -115,5 +115,13 @@ def run(addr, port, wsgi_handler, ipv6=False, threading=False):
     else:
         httpd_cls = WSGIServer
     httpd = httpd_cls(server_address, WSGIRequestHandler, ipv6=ipv6)
+    if threading:
+        # ThreadingMixIn.daemon_threads indicates how threads will behave on an
+        # abrupt shutdown; like quitting the server by the user or restarting
+        # by the auto-reloader. True means the server will not wait for thread
+        # termination before it quits. This will make auto-reloader faster
+        # and will prevent the need to kill the server manually if a thread
+        # isn't terminating correctly.
+        httpd.daemon_threads = True
     httpd.set_app(wsgi_handler)
     httpd.serve_forever()
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.8.txt b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
index 30a5ab2239..087098b4ba 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.8.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/1.8.txt
@@ -165,6 +165,8 @@ Management Commands
 * The :djadminopt:`--ignorenonexistent` option of the :djadmin:`loaddata`
   management command now ignores data for models that no longer exist.
 
+* :djadmin:`runserver` now uses daemon threads for faster reloading.
+
 Models
 ^^^^^^