diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_test.cc b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_test.cc
index bce788ca38d..52616323b02 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_test.cc
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_test.cc
@@ -1384,10 +1384,15 @@ TYPED_TEST(TestStringKernels, IsDecimalUnicode) {
 }
 
 TYPED_TEST(TestStringKernels, IsDigitUnicode) {
-  // These are digits according to Python, but we don't have the information in
-  // utf8proc for this
-  // this->CheckUnary("utf8_is_digit", "[\"²\", \"①\"]", boolean(), "[true,
-  // true]");
+  // Tests for digits across various Unicode scripts.
+  // ٤: Arabic 4, ³: Superscript 3, ५: Devanagari 5, Ⅷ: Roman 8 (not digit),
+  // １２３: Fullwidth 123.
+  // '¾' (vulgar fraction) is treated as a digit by utf8proc
+  this->CheckUnary(
+      "utf8_is_digit",
+      R"(["0", "٤", "۵", "३", "१२३", "٣٣", "²", "１２３", "٣٢", "٩", "①", "Ⅷ", "abc" , "⻁", ""])",
+      boolean(),
+      R"([true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, false, false, false, false])");
 }
 
 TYPED_TEST(TestStringKernels, IsNumericUnicode) {
diff --git a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_utf8.cc b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_utf8.cc
index e7b7952df3a..8eb2751cbb0 100644
--- a/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_utf8.cc
+++ b/cpp/src/arrow/compute/kernels/scalar_string_utf8.cc
@@ -138,9 +138,12 @@ static inline bool IsDecimalCharacterUnicode(uint32_t codepoint) {
 }
 
 static inline bool IsDigitCharacterUnicode(uint32_t codepoint) {
-  // Python defines this as Numeric_Type=Digit or Numeric_Type=Decimal.
-  // utf8proc has no support for this, this is the best we can do:
-  return HasAnyUnicodeGeneralCategory(codepoint, UTF8PROC_CATEGORY_ND);
+  // Approximates Python's str.isnumeric():
+  // returns true for Nd and No (e.g., '٣', '³'), but excludes Nl like Roman numerals
+  // ('Ⅷ') due to utf8proc limits.
+  // '¾' (vulgar fraction) is treated as a digit by utf8proc 'No'
+  return HasAnyUnicodeGeneralCategory(codepoint, UTF8PROC_CATEGORY_ND,
+                                      UTF8PROC_CATEGORY_NO);
 }
 
 static inline bool IsNumericCharacterUnicode(uint32_t codepoint) {