diff --git a/lib/_http_outgoing.js b/lib/_http_outgoing.js
index e362ea62472e45..ea3d7e62556212 100644
--- a/lib/_http_outgoing.js
+++ b/lib/_http_outgoing.js
@@ -506,8 +506,9 @@ function _storeHeader(firstLine, headers) {
 
   // keep-alive logic
   if (this._removedConnection) {
-    this._last = true;
-    this.shouldKeepAlive = false;
+    // shouldKeepAlive is generally true for HTTP/1.1. In that common case,
+    // even if the connection header isn't sent, we still persist by default.
+    this._last = !this.shouldKeepAlive;
   } else if (!state.connection) {
     const shouldSendKeepAlive = this.shouldKeepAlive &&
         (state.contLen || this.useChunkedEncodingByDefault || this.agent);
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-http-remove-connection-header-persists-connection.js b/test/parallel/test-http-remove-connection-header-persists-connection.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..6d05874272df03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/parallel/test-http-remove-connection-header-persists-connection.js
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+'use strict';
+require('../common');
+const assert = require('assert');
+
+const net = require('net');
+const http = require('http');
+
+const server = http.createServer(function(request, response) {
+  // When the connection header is removed, for HTTP/1.1 the connection should still persist.
+  // For HTTP/1.0, the connection should be closed after the response automatically.
+  response.removeHeader('connection');
+
+  response.end('beep boop\n');
+});
+
+const agent = new http.Agent({ keepAlive: true });
+
+function makeHttp11Request(cb) {
+  http.get({
+    port: server.address().port,
+    agent
+  }, function(res) {
+    const socket = res.socket;
+
+    assert.strictEqual(res.statusCode, 200);
+    assert.strictEqual(res.headers.connection, undefined);
+
+    res.setEncoding('ascii');
+    let response = '';
+    res.on('data', function(chunk) {
+      response += chunk;
+    });
+    res.on('end', function() {
+      assert.strictEqual(response, 'beep boop\n');
+
+      // Wait till next tick to ensure that the socket is returned to the agent before
+      // we continue to the next request
+      process.nextTick(function() {
+        cb(socket);
+      });
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+function makeHttp10Request(cb) {
+  // We have to manually make HTTP/1.0 requests since Node does not allow sending them:
+  const socket = net.connect({ port: server.address().port }, function() {
+    socket.write('GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n' +
+               'Host: localhost:' + server.address().port + '\r\n' +
+                '\r\n');
+    socket.resume(); // Ignore the response itself
+
+    setTimeout(function() {
+      cb(socket);
+    }, 10);
+  });
+}
+
+server.listen(0, function() {
+  makeHttp11Request(function(firstSocket) {
+    makeHttp11Request(function(secondSocket) {
+      // Both HTTP/1.1 requests should have used the same socket:
+      assert.strictEqual(firstSocket, secondSocket);
+
+      makeHttp10Request(function(socket) {
+        // The server should have immediately closed the HTTP/1.0 socket:
+        assert.strictEqual(socket.closed, true);
+        server.close();
+      });
+    });
+  });
+});