diff --git a/autotest/ogr/data/xlsx/row_without_r_attribute.xlsx b/autotest/ogr/data/xlsx/row_without_r_attribute.xlsx
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..53fbf6b644cf
Binary files /dev/null and b/autotest/ogr/data/xlsx/row_without_r_attribute.xlsx differ
diff --git a/autotest/ogr/ogr_xlsx.py b/autotest/ogr/ogr_xlsx.py
index f0c7a3a877c9..a4b8cc287935 100755
--- a/autotest/ogr/ogr_xlsx.py
+++ b/autotest/ogr/ogr_xlsx.py
@@ -649,3 +649,16 @@ def test_ogr_xlsx_read_xml_prefix():
     f = lyr.GetNextFeature()
     assert f["Col1"] == "foo"
     assert f["Col2"] == "bar"
+
+
+###############################################################################
+# Test reading a XLSX file with <row> without "r" attribute
+
+
+def test_ogr_xlsx_read_row_without_r_attribute():
+
+    ds = ogr.Open("data/xlsx/row_without_r_attribute.xlsx")
+    lyr = ds.GetLayer(0)
+    f = lyr.GetNextFeature()
+    assert f["ID"] == 1
+    assert f["NAME"] == "TEST123"
diff --git a/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/xlsx/ogrxlsxdatasource.cpp b/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/xlsx/ogrxlsxdatasource.cpp
index 5f4fdf4544eb..f7d32b508e4a 100644
--- a/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/xlsx/ogrxlsxdatasource.cpp
+++ b/ogr/ogrsf_frmts/xlsx/ogrxlsxdatasource.cpp
@@ -816,14 +816,22 @@ void OGRXLSXDataSource::startElementTable(const char *pszNameIn,
         apoCurLineValues.clear();
         apoCurLineTypes.clear();
 
-        int nNewCurLine = atoi(GetAttributeValue(ppszAttr, "r", "0"));
-        if (nNewCurLine <= 0)
+        int nNewCurLine;
+        if (const char *pszR = GetAttributeValue(ppszAttr, "r", nullptr))
         {
-            CPLError(CE_Failure, CPLE_AppDefined, "Invalid row: %d",
-                     nNewCurLine);
-            return;
+            nNewCurLine = atoi(pszR);
+            if (nNewCurLine <= 0)
+            {
+                CPLError(CE_Failure, CPLE_AppDefined, "Invalid row: %d",
+                         nNewCurLine);
+                return;
+            }
+            nNewCurLine--;
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            nNewCurLine = nCurLine;
         }
-        nNewCurLine--;
         const int nFields = std::max(
             static_cast<int>(apoFirstLineValues.size()),
             poCurLayer != nullptr ? poCurLayer->GetLayerDefn()->GetFieldCount()