diff --git a/kernel/fork.c b/kernel/fork.c
index f0e2e131a9a5..516faec8efb8 100644
--- a/kernel/fork.c
+++ b/kernel/fork.c
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@
 unsigned long total_forks;	/* Handle normal Linux uptimes. */
 int nr_threads;			/* The idle threads do not count.. */
 
-static int max_threads;		/* tunable limit on nr_threads */
+static int max_threads __read_mostly;		/* tunable limit on nr_threads */
 
 #define NAMED_ARRAY_INDEX(x)	[x] = __stringify(x)