diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index afb0be54..a82fa459 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 ## python-markdown2 2.5.6 (not yet released)
 
+- [pull #758] Fix `footnotes` extra adding an empty footnotes block when no footnote is referenced.
 - [pull #746] Preserve query strings and fragments in `markdown-file-links` conversions, including reference-link targets.
 - [pull #739] Fix `header-ids` extra putting sanitized HTML into header ids in safe mode, which allowed attribute injection (#649)
 - [pull #732] Fix excessive CPU use in the inline HTML tokenizer on repeated unclosed tag fragments (#707)
diff --git a/lib/markdown2.py b/lib/markdown2.py
index e35bf5d2..d08b2e5f 100755
--- a/lib/markdown2.py
+++ b/lib/markdown2.py
@@ -2280,7 +2280,8 @@ def _form_paragraphs(self, text: str) -> str:
         return "\n\n".join(grafs)
 
     def _add_footnotes(self, text: str) -> str:
-        if self.footnotes:
+        # Only referenced footnotes are listed, so there is nothing to add without any reference
+        if self.footnote_ids:
             footer = [
                 '<div class="footnotes">',
                 '<hr' + self.empty_element_suffix,
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.html b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dd2e918c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<p>This paragraph has no footnote marker.</p>
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.opts b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.opts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9dfee9e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.opts
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+{"extras": ["footnotes"]}
diff --git a/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.text b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.text
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..ae7962e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/tm-cases/footnotes_unreferenced.text
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+This paragraph has no footnote marker.
+
+[^1]: A footnote that is never referenced.