diff --git a/django/newforms/fields.py b/django/newforms/fields.py
index e3c1cee87a..0b883bfad1 100644
--- a/django/newforms/fields.py
+++ b/django/newforms/fields.py
@@ -114,11 +114,11 @@ class IntegerField(Field):
     def clean(self, value):
         """
         Validates that int() can be called on the input. Returns the result
-        of int().
+        of int(). Returns None for empty values.
         """
         super(IntegerField, self).clean(value)
         if not self.required and value in EMPTY_VALUES:
-            return u''
+            return None
         try:
             value = int(value)
         except (ValueError, TypeError):
diff --git a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
index 7ad6ffb98a..bfe36a467e 100644
--- a/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
+++ b/tests/regressiontests/forms/tests.py
@@ -810,9 +810,11 @@ ValidationError: [u'Enter a whole number.']
 
 >>> f = IntegerField(required=False)
 >>> f.clean('')
-u''
+>>> repr(f.clean(''))
+'None'
 >>> f.clean(None)
-u''
+>>> repr(f.clean(None))
+'None'
 >>> f.clean('1')
 1
 >>> isinstance(f.clean('1'), int)