diff --git a/bw2data/backends/typos.py b/bw2data/backends/typos.py
index ab513aee..34cbd521 100644
--- a/bw2data/backends/typos.py
+++ b/bw2data/backends/typos.py
@@ -1,7 +1,14 @@
 from typing import Iterable
 import warnings
 from functools import partial
-from ..string_distance import damerau_levenshtein
+
+try:
+    from rapidfuzz.distance import DamerauLevenshtein
+    damerau_levenshtein = DamerauLevenshtein.distance
+except ImportError:
+    # Can happen on Windows, see
+    # https://github.com/rapidfuzz/RapidFuzz/tree/main?tab=readme-ov-file#with-pip
+    from ..string_distance import damerau_levenshtein
 
 VALID_ACTIVITY_TYPES = (
     "process",
diff --git a/requirements-test.txt b/requirements-test.txt
index 9be30d18..95829e3e 100644
--- a/requirements-test.txt
+++ b/requirements-test.txt
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ platformdirs
 pytest
 pytest-cov
 python-coveralls
+rapidfuzz
 requests>=1.1.0
 scipy
 stats_arrays
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index e405cd5f..ece43436 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ numpy<2
 peewee>=3.9.4
 platformdirs
 requests>=1.1.0
+rapidfuzz
 scipy
 stats_arrays
 tqdm
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 52c751da..3f7af527 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
         "numpy<2",
         "peewee>=3.9.4",
         "platformdirs",
+        "rapidfuzz",
         "scipy",
         "stats_arrays",
         "tqdm",