diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index bdec7682..970a7081 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 
 ### 🐞 Fixes
 
+- [#872](https://github.com/estruyf/vscode-front-matter/issues/872): Check the default field value as well for the field's `when` clause
 - [#874](https://github.com/estruyf/vscode-front-matter/issues/874): Fix media snippet markup insertion to article content's
 - [#875](https://github.com/estruyf/vscode-front-matter/issues/875): Clean up the exclamation marks from the file name when creating new content
 
diff --git a/src/utils/fieldWhenClause.ts b/src/utils/fieldWhenClause.ts
index 807ab89a..096d8e85 100644
--- a/src/utils/fieldWhenClause.ts
+++ b/src/utils/fieldWhenClause.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,10 @@ export const fieldWhenClause = (field: Field, parent: IMetadata, allFields?: Fie
     }
   }
 
-  const whenValue = parent[when.fieldRef];
+  let whenValue = parent[when.fieldRef];
+  if (whenValue === undefined) {
+    whenValue = field.default as string | IMetadata | string[] | null;
+  }
   if (when.caseSensitive || typeof when.caseSensitive === 'undefined') {
     return caseSensitive(when, field, whenValue);
   } else {
@@ -61,7 +64,7 @@ const caseInsensitive = (
  */
 const caseSensitive = (
   when: WhenClause,
-  field: Field,
+  _: Field,
   whenValue: string | IMetadata | string[] | null
 ) => {
   switch (when.operator) {