How important is it for PHP scripts to be saved in UTF-8 format when dealing with international characters?

It is crucial for PHP scripts to be saved in UTF-8 format when dealing with international characters to ensure proper encoding and display of characters from various languages. This is important for maintaining consistency and accuracy when handling multilingual content on websites or applications.

// Set the default character encoding to UTF-8
header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8');
mb_internal_encoding('UTF-8');