1 files changed, 6 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/django/db/backends/postgresql/creation.py b/django/db/backends/postgresql/creation.py
index a609f33fd6..eb8ac3bcf5 100644
--- a/django/db/backends/postgresql/creation.py
+++ b/django/db/backends/postgresql/creation.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import sys
 
 from psycopg2 import errorcodes
 
+from django.core.exceptions import ImproperlyConfigured
 from django.db.backends.base.creation import BaseDatabaseCreation
 from django.db.backends.utils import strip_quotes
 
@@ -21,9 +22,11 @@ class DatabaseCreation(BaseDatabaseCreation):
 
     def sql_table_creation_suffix(self):
         test_settings = self.connection.settings_dict['TEST']
-        assert test_settings['COLLATION'] is None, (
-            "PostgreSQL does not support collation setting at database creation time."
-        )
+        if test_settings.get('COLLATION') is not None:
+            raise ImproperlyConfigured(
+                'PostgreSQL does not support collation setting at database '
+                'creation time.'
+            )
         return self._get_database_create_suffix(
             encoding=test_settings['CHARSET'],
             template=test_settings.get('TEMPLATE'),