diff --git a/pandas/io/stata.py b/pandas/io/stata.py
index a85abb9be843f1..aff825ba902d4e 100644
--- a/pandas/io/stata.py
+++ b/pandas/io/stata.py
@@ -1240,7 +1240,7 @@ def _read_old_header(self, first_char):
                                   self.path_or_buf.read(2))[0]
         self.nobs = self._get_nobs()
 
-        self.data_label = self._get_data_label()
+        self._data_label = self._get_data_label()
 
         self.time_stamp = self._get_time_stamp()
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_stata.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_stata.py
index 420ccfc885ef01..7fe99fcf6fd5a1 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_stata.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_stata.py
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ def test_read_dta18(self):
                            'Floats': 'float data'}
             tm.assert_dict_equal(vl, vl_expected)
 
-            assert rdr.data_label == 'This is a  Ünicode data label'
+            assert rdr._data_label == 'This is a  Ünicode data label'
 
     def test_read_write_dta5(self):
         original = DataFrame([(np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan, np.nan)],
@@ -499,7 +499,7 @@ def test_timestamp_and_label(self, version):
 
             with StataReader(path) as reader:
                 assert reader.time_stamp == '29 Feb 2000 14:21'
-                assert reader.data_label == data_label
+                assert reader._data_label == data_label
 
     @pytest.mark.parametrize('version', [114, 117])
     def test_invalid_timestamp(self, version):