diff --git a/nativescript-core/ui/text-base/span.ts b/nativescript-core/ui/text-base/span.ts
index e2a648a34..afce37d80 100644
--- a/nativescript-core/ui/text-base/span.ts
+++ b/nativescript-core/ui/text-base/span.ts
@@ -65,8 +65,9 @@ export class Span extends ViewBase implements SpanDefinition {
     }
     set text(value: string) {
         if (this._text !== value) {
-            this._text = value && value.replace("\\n", "\n").replace("\\t", "\t");
-            this.notifyPropertyChange("text", value);
+            // value can be a number
+            this._text = `${value}`.replace("\\n", "\n").replace("\\t", "\t");
+            this.notifyPropertyChange("text", this._text);
         }
     }