diff --git a/changelog.d/5894.misc b/changelog.d/5894.misc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fca4485ff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/5894.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Add missing index on users_in_public_rooms to improve the performance of directory queries.
diff --git a/synapse/storage/schema/delta/56/users_in_public_rooms_idx.sql b/synapse/storage/schema/delta/56/users_in_public_rooms_idx.sql
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..149f8be8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/synapse/storage/schema/delta/56/users_in_public_rooms_idx.sql
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+/* Copyright 2019 Matrix.org Foundation CIC
+ *
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+
+-- this was apparently forgotten when the table was created back in delta 53.
+CREATE INDEX users_in_public_rooms_r_idx ON users_in_public_rooms(room_id);